Ord Girls Win Big in LPC Semifinals
By: Kyle Campise
The Ord ladies thoroughly dominated the Ravenna Blue Jays in LouPlatte Conference semifinal action on Tuesday night in Ord, defeating the visitors 64-33. The win marks Ord’s ninth in their last ten and advances them to a semi-final match-up with Arcadia-Loup City Friday night at Centura, who is the conference host the rest of the way.
The game with the Rebels will be a rematch of a January 25 match-up in Loup City, where the Chants came away with a hard-fought victory, 50-42. Arcadia- Loup City comes into the game as the three seed, while the Lady Chants come in as the two seed, with both teams possessing a 13-6 record.
On Tuesday night, the now 3-16 Blue Jays were just thoroughly overmatched by the domineering Chanticleers. Lillie Shoemaker was very aggressive in the paint, causing her to get into early foul trouble. Other players stepped it up, and this was a total team effort. One of those that really stepped it up off the bench was Addison Stethem. She had this to say after the ballgame, “We were so glad to start the week off playing at home, since we were the two seed. Everyone has a job, and although most of the time, mine isn’t on the court scoring, when I do get in the game, it’s a lot of fun. I don’t always get a lot of minutes, but when I do, I try to make the most of it. I love playing with these girls.”
One can really see the support and unselfish play in this team, with the bench often offering cheers and verbal support to those on the court. Stethem continued, “Our big goal is a conference championship. We just must work hard and get there one game at a time. I am so proud of this team.”
With all the Ord girls getting playing time except Aracely Negrete, who is coming off an ankle injury, sharp shooting Natalie Willimas led the Chants in scoring with 12 points, while Claire Cargill had another solid night adding nine points. Jamie Vavra, Shoemaker, and Stethem each added eight points apiece.
Ord Girls Finish Runners-up in the LPC Tourney
The Lady Chants are district tournament runners up, after posted two victories in the LouPlatte Conference Tournament.
Things got started as the host Lady Chants totally manhandled the visiting Ravenna Blue Jays in the first round of the tournament as earlier reported.
This win set up a matchup with Arcadia-Loup City on Friday, where the Lady Chants took care of business winning the game 56-39, moving their record to 14-6 on the season.
Despite the lopsided victory, the Lady Chants only shot 36% from the field but ended up 8 for 11 from the free throw line, and dominated in the paint scoring on the night, 24-8.
Claire Cargill had a solid night in scoring, leading the team with 24 points on the night. She was the only Ord player that finished in double digits in scoring. Lillee Alexander gobbled up six defensive rebounds in the victory. The win set up a LouPlatte conference tournament championship game Saturday against Central City.
In this championship matchup, shots did not fall in the hoop for the Lady Chants as they were handily defeated 54-26. They were outscored in every quarter, as were even limited to a single point in the entire second quarter.
Reagan Fousek led Central City with 18 points, while Sydni Homolka added 15. The Chants were led by Claire Cargill with seven points.
Way too many turnovers and poor shooting led to the loss for the Lady Chants, moving their overall record to 14-7. They will finish the regular season with two tough home games Tuesday against 15-5 Broken Bow, and Friday against 14-6 O’Neill.