Warner stops Lady Tigers in Tiger Den

The Ipswich Lady Tigers' varsity basketball team dropped a 62-55 decision to Warner in the Tiger Den last Thursday.

Warner led 15-6 after a quarter, but to Ipswich's credit, the Lady Tigers weren't going home any time soon. They only trailed their powerful league rival by 10 points at intermission, 28-18 and narrowed that even further with a 23-15 third-quarter rally. But Warner maintained its composure down the stretch with a 20-14 edge in the final quarter and the ultimate seven-point victory.

Warner utilized a balanced scoring effort, led by the tall and talented Laurie Rogers with 22 points. Next was Ashley Fischbach with 17 points and Sydney Leidholdt also reached double-figures with a 13-point evening. Three other Monarchs scored.

Meanwhile, Ipswich featured the game's leading scorer, Kamryn Heinz with 27 points, including four treys and adding four assists. Following her were Halle Heinz and Tessa Kilber with eight points apiece and they each included a pair of treys. Abby Grabowska scored seven points and included a trey that completed IHS scoring in the game. Sydney Loken added a trey for her three points and Aleah Steger contributed two points.

Ipswich shot 20-53 from the floor including those 10 treys and was 5-8 at the free throw line. The visitors were 22-44 in floor shots, featuring five treys and 13-20 at the line.

The Monarchs obtained a 36-20 rebounding edge and Ipswich was led by Abby Grabowska and Kamryn Heinz with seven retrieves apiece. Ipswich played a nearly flawless floor game with only four turnovers; the Monarchs, 10. Five of those were courtesy of Lady Tiger steals, led by Halle Heinz with three.

Then on Saturday afternoon, the Ipswich girls' JV traveled to Aberdeen to face the Aberdeen Christian girls' varsity and Ipswich came away with an impressive 46-15 win. The Lady Tigers gradually pulled away and earned their initial double-figure lead with a Kilber steal conversion, putting Ipswich up 13-3 late in the first quarter.

It was a total team effort, led by Kate Geditz with 10 points, followed by Bailey Pitz with nine points, including her team's lone trey. Lindsey Grabowska scored eight points and Kilber six. Chesney Olivier was next with five points. Hallie Feldman, Ashton Loken, Izzy McQuarie and Tarynn Kleffman each added two points to the cause.

Brooke Hintz scored four points to lead AC.

The IHS girls' varsity, 5-2 after the Warner loss, hosted Northwestern here on January 8, also a Lake Region Conference clash.