Tigers girls open season, girls and boys to play in Webster

The Ipswich girls lost a pair of opening-week non-conference basketball decisions last week, one on the road at Sully Buttes last Tuesday and the other at home in the Tiger Den on Saturday afternoon.

Sully Buttes scored 56 points that night, led by Stevie Wittler with 19 points plus a pair of additional double-figure scorers. Ipswich would end up with 19 team points led by Gabby Wald with 11 points including a trey and next was Marley Guthmiller with four points followed by Ashlyn Weig with three points. Baylee Kulessa rounded out the effort with a free throw.

The hosts would lead 18-6 after a quarter and 34-14 at intermission. They then outscored Ipswich 17-4 in the third quarter and coasted down the stretch.

Ipswich's effective field goal percentage would be 22.9% while the Chargers were right at 38.5% Sully Buttes included three treys and Ipswich that one trey.

Ipswich shot 8-16 at the charity stripe and Sully Buttes, 9-12.

The Tigers were able to collect 22 rebounds, led by Kulessa with five and Quincy Olivier with four retrieves. Sully Buttes countered with 36 boards.

Ipswich had 33 turnovers; Sully Buttes, 15. Ipswich offset them by grabbing eight steals of their own.

The Tigers would then be able to reduce their turnovers to 26 vs. the Patriots, who had 15 of their own.

The visitors got an opening trey and wouldn't ever relinquish their advantage, going ahead 19-8 after a quarter. (Ipswich would first get on the scoreboard with a Kulessa free throw to trail 5-1 at that juncture of the contest.) The Patriots would then comfortably lead 35-15 at the half and 45-22 with a quarter to play.

Wald ended up with eight points including a trey and Kaylin Onken and Kulessa each scored six points for Ipswich. Guthmiller added four points and Brianna Geditz a trey for her three points. Anna Nierman added two points and Weig a free throw.

The visitors were led by Cambree Hoekman with 18 points and Jessica Godfrey with 16 counters.

Ipswich went 9-37 in two-point baskets and 2-12 in treys and 6-12 at the line. The visitors were 12-36 in two-pointers and 6-12 in treys and 15-25 in free throw attempts.

Ipswich had seven steals and eight assists in balanced team efforts.

The Tigers are set to play in a doubleheader in Webster on Saturday. The girls are scheduled to play Langford Area on the road on Friday.