Ipswich tipped off its girls' varsity basketball season with a hard-fought 52-47 win over potential Region 2B rival Sully Buttes last Tuesday in Onida. Anytime those two teams have clashed in the past few years, you can look for things to be close and that proved to be true again on Tuesday.
The score was tied five times with seven lead changes and ended up within two possessions. Ipswich's largest lead would briefly be by 10 points. Ipswich had led 14-10 after a quarter and also narrowly won the second quarter 17-16 for a 31-26 edge at intermission. Ipswich then led 44-37 with a quarter to play and staved off the hosts in the final quarter, despite their 10-8 edge at that juncture of the contest. (The Chargers' largest lead in the game was just three points.)
Ipswich fueled its scoring attack with 23 points from Halle Heinz, who also included one trey and a 6-6 free throw evening. Next was Katie Bierman with 12 points that also featured a trey. Her sister Hailey Bierman nearly reached double-figure scoring status with nine points and she included a trey.
From there, the scoring tapered off to three points each from Chesney Olivier and Bailey Pitz who netted the Tigers' remaining trey. Halie Feldman added a basket.
The hosts were led by Lydia Hill with 17 points and Stevie Wittler, their second double-figure scorer, scored 14 points.
Ipswich shot 20-51 from the floor overall and was 4 of 22 from beyond the trey arc. The Tiger girls were 8-9 in free throws to complete their ledger. Sully Buttes shot 20-43 from the floor and also featured four treys, along with a 4-10 free throw evening. One thing that helped keep things close was a 32-22 rebounding edge by the hosts. (Hailey Bierman led Ipswich's balanced effort with six rebounds.) But the Chargers committed 15 turnovers compared to Ipswich's 7. Ipswich forced that issue with 12 steals, led by Heinz with four. Chesney Olivier distributed six of her team's 13 total assists.
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