Three wins for Lady Tigers last week

The IHS girls' basketball team had a busy week last week as their regular-season schedule began to wind down. But the bottom line was that they won all three of their games.

The Tiger girls indeed saw action on three different days, capped by a Warner-Stratford Lions Classic appearance in Warner on Saturday vs. Wolsey-Wessington. A highlight of that game besides the eventual 50-40 non-conference IHS victory was that IHS senior Tessa Kilber was awarded a Warner-Stratford Lions Senior Scholarship.

A day earlier Ipswich had hosted Sully Buttes in the Tiger Den (along with the Tiger boys). The Tiger girls rallied down the stretch and sent the game into OT deadlocked at 41 points apiece. Halle Heinz had scored on a drive to the basket to draw Ipswich to within two points, 41-39,  in regulation and she added a pair of free throws after Ipswich had gotten a defensive stop. Ipswich would then outscore its visitors 9-4 in the extra period with some balanced scoring and solid defense for the two-possession 50-45 win.

Only one of that trio of girls' outcomes was a LRC league game, though, which produced a last-possession 48-46 IHS victory over Aberdeen Christian last Tuesday in the Tiger Den.

In that one Ipswich scored the first basket (Chesney Olivier) and the last basket of the game (Katie Bierman's lay-up). But a lot happened in between. The score was tied nine times with 10 lead changes. Ipswich's largest lead would be four points, 10-6 on a Katie Bierman basket late in the opening quarter and the visitors would appear to be in the drivers' seat with their late six-point scoring advantage, 41-35, thanks to a pair of accurate free throws at the 3:14 mark of the contest.

But Ipswich's D rose to the occasion down the stretch, forcing some costly Knight turnovers and the Tiger girls would capitalize on them with a 13-5 scoring advantage, capped by that Katie Bierman basket for the one-possession lead.

(Halle Heinz had just knotted the game at 46  with a layup of her own and yet another Tiger backcourt steal would set up that Bierman scoring opportunity  after a Tiger timeout with about 25 ticks on the game clock.)

But the visitors still had enough time for one final trey attempt that would have salvaged their win, but it fell short of the mark. They had led 12-10 after a quarter, but Ipswich led 17-15 at intermission after a defense-minded second quarter. The visitors would then narrowly edge Ipswich 12-11 in the third quarter to set up the decisive final stanza.

Heinz drew a lot of AC attention, but still finished with a game-high 22 points including a pair of treys. And Katie Bierman became Ipswich's second double-figure scorer that evening with 12 points. Hailey Bierman added seven points that featured a pair of treys and Chesney Olivier finished up with four points. Kilber's final-quarter-opening steal conversion provided her two points and Lindsey Grabowska's free throw completed the ledger.

Meanwhile, Joy Rohrbach paced the visitors with 19 points that included three of their eight treys and Hailey Moeller was next with 11 points also with a trio of three-balls. Two players had eight points apiece, Kaylee Block and Grace Kaiser.

Ipswich shot 18-54 from the floor, including its four treys and was 8-13 in free throw tries. The visitors countered with an overall 15-48 floor-shooting night that included those eight treys. They were 8-11 at the line.

Ipswich indeed would finish with eight fewer turnovers than AC's 19. And the Lady Tigers would directly produce 13 of the AC miscues with steals, led by Kilber's four. But the Knights helped keep things close with a 35-31 rebounding lead, despite Katie Bierman's four retrieves.

In the SB girls' game in the Tiger Den, the visitors would get off to a solid start with a 13-7 first-quarter lead. Ipswich out-scored the Chargers 16-12 in the second quarter to tighten the game up to 25-23, though still favoring the Chargers. But Ipswich would grab some third-quarter momentum, outscoring its visitors 10-4 to lead 33-29 with a quarter to play. Sully Buttes would outscore Ipswich 12-8 in the final quarter, thus leaving nothing decided in the first 32 minutes of the game.

Ipswich received 17 points from Heinz, which would still be enough for game-high scoring honors and she featured a trio of treys. Pitz was Ipswich's second double-figure scorer that evening with 10 points which featured a pair of treys. Next was Chesney Olivier with seven points, followed by Grabowska, Hailey Bierman and Katie Bierman, all with four points apiece. Halie Feldman and Kilber each tallied two points to complete the Tiger ledger.

Kendra Kleven paced the visitors with 15 points and they also saw Allyson Wittler get into her team's double-figure scoring column with 12 points. Four other Chargers contributed to their scorebook that evening.

The Chargers made 17 baskets, including two treys and were 9-15 in free throws.  Ipswich came away with 17 baskets, as well, but five of them were those treys. Ipswich also obtained 11 free throws in 25 attempts.

The rebounding war favored the visitors 47-38, but Ipswich had a balanced effort on the boards, led by Chesney Olivier with six retrieves and Kilber with five. The Tiger girls sustained 12 turnovers; SB, 20. Fifteen of them were Tiger steals.

In Warner, meanwhile, the Ipswich vs. Wolsey-Wessington outcome featured several mini momentum changes, including a furious Warbird rally down the stretch. The W-W contingent would trim a 16-point deficit at one point of the contest to eight points, 46-38 late in the game on a rebound put-back. But time would indeed run out on the Warbird rally.

And Heinz nailed a pair of late free throws to restore Ipswich's final margin into double-figures again. She finished with 17 points and three of those points resulted from a trey. Ipswich would get some balanced scoring efforts from the rest of the team, though. Pitz netted a trio of treys for her nine points and Katie Bierman was next with seven points that included her team's remaining trey. Kilber contributed six points and Hailey Bierman tallied five points. Chesney Olivier scored four points and Grabowska, two.

The Warbirds were led by the game-high scorer Mya Boomsma with 19 points including a 10-10 effort at the charity stripe, followed by Cortney Sprecher also in double figures that afternoon with 11 points. But only three other Warbirds managed to score.

Ipswich connected on 16 floor-shots including its five treys and was 13-18 in free throw tries. The Warbirds countered with 13 baskets that featured a pair of treys and were 12-22 at the line.

Ipswich jumped ahead 13-5 after a quarter and obtained its first double-figure lead, 15-5 on a second-quarter-opening Katie Bierman basket. Ipswich would then lead 27-11 at intermission, while each team would score 11 points in the third quarter. That set the stage for the W-W comeback bid that featured a 18-12 Warbird final-quarter scoring edge.

The Ipswich girls were to travel to Highmore to face Highmore-Harrold on February 18 and will close out their regular-season schedule on the road against Potter County on February 20 in a girls/boys format.

Region 2B play begins Monday, Feb. 24 with the eight and nine seeded teams playing. The remaining teams, including Ipswich, begin play on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The SoDak 16 qualifiers will be determined on Thursday, Feb. 27. The final pairings were not available at press-time, since the season is still in progress for most teams. All Regional games begin at 7 p.m. at the home of the higher seed.