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Click here for our Local High School Basketball Pages
 Junior Peyton Quinn takes the ball strong to the basket against the much larger Marion Giants. Quinn finished with 22 points in the Tigers’ loss. (Photo by Larry Oliver) Giants outlast Lady Tigers By LARRY OLIVER Marion was bigger inside, and deeper on the bench, but the Lady Tigers managed to hang with the Giants for most of the game and even leading multiple times throughout before falling 74-64 at Bill Green Arena last Wednes-day night. “We might have lost the battle here tonight,” said Tiger Coach Tina Bolte, “but we took a big step forward towards winning the war. Before the game, I have never really approached a game like this, I didn’t write anything down. I just wrote play hard, because the biggest disappointment a-gainst Oak Hill was that our heart wasn’t in it, and that has been our trademark since Yorktown. We had a big talk about remembering what that felt like, remembering how fun that was, we need that back, and I really believe that is the only reason we were in the game tonight. Marion is a great team, and they have some great players.” Alexandria got off to another slow start, but finally got things going midway through the first quarter when Peyton Quinn hit a jumper in the lane, then all bets were off, as the teams would battle back and forth the rest of the way. Quinn had another outstanding game, as did fellow junior Shanna Kelly. The two Tiger standouts looked much more comfortable on the floor, and were leading by example, something Coach Bolte wanted to see after the Tigers’ disappointing performance last week against conference foe Oak Hill. “It speaks a lot when you have a talk with your team, and then you see who responds,” said Bolte. “I don’t doubt that anyone on this team wants to win, but to really put it into action and do what is being asked, it means a lot to take some coaching like that and seek out opportunities to improve. I thought that both of those girls (Kelly and Quinn) played really hard throughout and that was a big difference tonight.” Coming off the lowest scoring game of her career (including youth basketball, and probably the Nerf toddler games), Kelly once again came back strong for the Tigers leading all scorers with 27 points, followed closely by Quinn with 22. Courtney Skinner finished with seven points; Kenzi Sayre added four, and both Carlee Wihebrink and Desirae Litchfield added two points each. Peyton Quinn and Wihebrink each finished the game with five rebounds to lead all Tigers. Marion was led in scoring by Friday with 24 points, Spood had 20 and Glickfield finished with 18. Wihebrink and Shelby Ford each fouled out of the game midway through the fourth quarter. “We gave ourselves an opportunity tonight, we just have to learn to shake off some mistakes and have some heart,” Bolte added. In Junior Varsity action, Alexandria seemed to maintain enough defensive pressure to stay with Marion most of the game, but the Giants pulled away in the fourth period grabbing the 32-16 win. “We played hard in spurts,” said JV Coach Scott Pher-son. “Like I told them, we had certain individuals play really hard when they were in there, but we sometimes get certain combinations where we start to let it slide for a couple minutes and we can’t do that. I was very happy to be down two at halftime, knowing the only reason we were down was because we missed some free throws. We are going to keep coming out with the same mentality of attacking, and we are not going to lose anymore. We are going to get the ball wherever it is on the floor and we are going to win games the rest of the way.” Morgan Oliver led Alex with 10 points, five steals and four rebounds. Other players to get into the scoring column included Kelsey Crisp and Ashley Beeson each with two points, and both Abby Ford and Kennedy Aiman added one. Hailee Beeson and Aiman each added four rebounds, and Maci Cox grabbed three steals. “It is nice to see Morgan get out of that slump she has been in the last few games,” Pherson said. “She has been our team’s leading scorer for the season and that is what you expect. She is our point guard and can handle the ball, and she can move. We have started to move her around more so she doesn’t necessarily have to bring the ball down the floor all the time and distribute, but actually get the ball so she can try and do something with it and maybe that helped to bring her out of that slump.” |