IHS and North Central have close clash

If you're a fan of close high school basketball outcomes and who isn't, the Lake Region Conference and potential Region 2B girls' rivalry between North Central and Ipswich last Tuesday in Ipswich should have been right up your alley.

Ipswich indeed held on for a 45-43 win over the Thunder. The visitors had just deadlocked this game for the upteenth time (11 times to be exact) and there were as many or more lead changes in the highly contested clash. But the Tigers had Halle Heinz create and she indeed drove into the lane and landed a soft floater with time running out. The Thunder were still able to launch a desperation three-ball attempt as the clock expired, which missed its mark.

Heinz had opened scoring with a trey and would finish with 25 more points, including that game-winner and a total of four treys.

The entire contest was so close that Ipswich's two biggest leads were at six points, 23-17 and 30-24, respectively, both courtesy of Heinz treys. The Thunder's biggest lead of the entire game was four points, 13-9 at the end of the opening quarter, capping a six-point run with back-to-back layups from Krystal Geier and a Grace Walz steal conversion.

But Ipswich regrouped to lead 23-18 at intermission. Then the third-quarter scoring action came to a close, all knotted at 34-34, thanks to the Thunder's Brittney Frickson's buzzer-beating trey.

Meanwhile, Heinz's game-high scoring spree also featured a 6-8 free throw-line performance and nobody else reached double-figures for the Tigers. But Bailey Pitz and Katie Bierman totaled four points each, followed by Tessa Kilber with three counters and Hailey Bierman and Halie Feldman both scoring a basket. Chesney Olivier and Lindsey Grabowska each made a free throw to cap scoring for the evening.

The Thunder obtained two double-figure scorers -- Walz with 19 points and Geier with 10 points. Frickson totaled eight points with her two treys and Maddie Crawford added four points. Sam Lux capped the Thunder ledger with two points.

Ipswich finished 16-58 in floor-shot tries, including the four Heinz treys and the Tiger girls were 9-19 at the free throw line. North Central countered with 17 floor shots in 50 tries that included that pair of Frickson treys. The Thunder added a 7-12 free-throw evening.

The Thunder enjoyed a 45-17 rebounding edge, led by Walz with 15 for a double-double. Pitz paced a balanced Ipswich effort on the boards with five rebounds. But the Tigers off-set that with only 12 turnovers compared to NC's 23. Ipswich edged its visitors 10-8 in steals. Crawford collected two thefts for the Thunder, while Heinz and Kilber each grabbed three steals for the Tiger defenders.