Tigers and Pirates battle for girls basketball Region 2B win

The Ipswich Lady Tigers dropped a hard-fought 60-56 two-possession outcome to Highmore-Harrold in a Region 2B bracket semifinal last Tuesday in Ipswich. That closed out their 2019-20 campaign at 15-6, but the good news is that Ipswich will graduate a lone senior in the person of Tessa Kilber. And more good news for the Pirates was that they also upset Herreid/Selby Area to capture a 2B bracket championship along with who else but Faulkton. No surprises there!

How close was that H-H vs. Ipswich outcome? It had six ties and 21 lead changes, believe it or not! Ipswich's largest lead of the entire contest was by six points in the opening quarter and the visitors' most favorable lead was eight points in the third stanza.

The Lady Tigers led 15-11 after a quarter, but their visitors responded with a 14-8 second-quarter edge to go ahead 25-23 at intermission. The visiting team also obtained a 20-14 third-quarter lead for a little more breathing room with a quarter to play. But Ipswich wasn't going away any time soon with a 19-15 final-stanza scoring edge (not quite enough).

The visitors obtained five scorers that evening, led by four double-figure scoring efforts. Letha Jessa topped them with 18 points, followed by Courtney Moser with 15 points, and Hailey Husted and Oakley Jandreau with 10 points apiece. (She added 11 rebounds for a double-double.)

Ipswich countered with a game-high 31-points evening from Halle Heinz and she featured five treys. Next was Chesney Olivier also in double-figures with 12 points. Halie Feldman and Katie Bierman scored five points apiece, each including a trey. And Kilber completed scoring with Ipswich's remaining trey for her three points.

Ipswich netted 21 floor shots in 64 tries, including those eight treys and shot 6-8 at the charity stripe. The Pirates countered with a 20-51 floor-shooting effort that included seven treys and were a warm 13-15 in free throw chances.

Ipswich captured 32 rebounds; its visitors, 44. It was a team effort for Ipswich, led by Lindsey Grabowska and Hailey Bierman with four apiece. Ipswich committed only three turnovers in a well-played floor game and the visting team, 17. Ipswich came away with nine steals.