By Fred Solis
The Hutchinson Tribune
HAVEN—After a close first half against Garden Plain in the battle for third place at the Wildcat Classic last week, Andale went eight-plus minutes without scoring a basket. Meanwhile, the Owls scored 22 points to open up a 15-point lead and a path to a 43-33 win.
The game started evenly enough with both sides trading baskets and Andale taking a 13-12 lead over Garden Plain at the end of the first quarter. Brooke Grimes scored seven of Andale’s points in the period.
The second quarter was another back-and-forth affair until the final minutes, when the Owls outscored the Indians 5-2 to go up 24-20 at halftime. The second quarter also marked the start of Andale’s drought with a lone basket at 6:55. From then to the half, all Andale’s points came at the line, where they were 5-of-8.
But then it went from bad to worse for the Indians.
The Indians only point during the entire third quarter came at the free-throw line. By the time Grimes broke the spell with a 3 at 5:48 in the fourth quarter, the game was in hand for the Owls with a 36-24 lead.
Grimes scored a game-high 12 points with six rebounds and was named to the all-tournament team. Edyn Stolz was the team’s next highest scorer with nine points and nine boards.
Andale rallied for 12 points in the fourth quarter while the Owls scored seven, but it wasn’t near enough to overtake Garden Plain, whose zone defense limited the Indians to just eight points in the paint on the night.
Cheney 50, Andale 39
Against Cheney in Andale’s second game, the Indians had an early upper hand over the Cardinals with an 11-4 lead after the first quarter and 21-17 at halftime. Their fortunes were reversed in the second half, though, with Cheney besting Andale 19-9 in the third quarter and 14-9 in the fourth, which ensured a 50-39 Cardinals’ victory.
Still, the Indians trailed by just one-point, 30-29, when Grimes hit a shot at 1:41 in the third quarter. She ended the night with a game-high 19 points and six rebounds.
A last-second basket by the Cardinals gave them a 36-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter. But the Cardinals continued with a hot hand and put up five quick points to start the fourth and open up a 41-30 lead at 6:24.
After an Andale timeout, the Indians came out firing with a 6-0 run to come within five of the Cardinals, 35-41. But Andale fouls began to take their toll—23 in the game—and Cheney took advantage of the infractions and scored five of their last nine points at the line to nail down the win and end Andale’s six-game win streak.
Andale 48, Circle 47
The Indians, now 8-5 on the season, opened play against Circle, and scored a 48-47 win on a last-second basket by Mayla Spexarth.
Sitting on the bench for a chunk of the game in foul trouble, Spexarth was distraught at the thought of disappointing her teammates.
“I felt like I was like letting down my team,” Spexarth said. “And so I just got into the right mindset and I just knew that I needed to take care of business because the bigs are really important to our team.”
Down 47-46 with seconds to go in the game, Spexarth worked her way around a screen to the left side where Paige Stanhope fed her the ball for a layup and the winning basket with 3.2 on the clock.
“It feels really great,” Spexarth said after the game. “I’m really satisfied about it. It just feels like it all paid off and that I trusted myself and I was like, ‘Okay, be patient. Your time will come, you’ll get a good pass, and then you’re just going to put the ball in.’ Just the basics, and then that’s what I did.”
Andale led 14-7 at the end of the first quarter before Circle put together a 9-4 late second-quarter run to trail the Indians 25-23 at the break. But a 13-5 third quarter gave the Thunderbirds a 36-30 lead with the final eight minutes to play.
That’s when junior guard Abbi Winter came alive, with nine of her game-high 14 points to make it a one-possession game at 1:08 with Circle clinging to a 46-45 lead. An Andale free throw at 40.5 seconds tied the game, setting the stage for Spexarth’s heroics.
“That was a nail biter,” said Andale Coach Joe’Randle Toliver. “When we get our bigs in foul trouble like that it’s hard for us to defend down there (in the post).
“We love running the floor,” he continued. “We can get the ball out and run with our fast guards, but when we go to a half-court offense, we depend on our bigs to be there to kind of cause chaos in the paint.
“We were able to get some turnovers and some points off of that,” Toliver said.
While the Indians scored 21 points off Circle’s 29 turnovers, Andale committed 20 turnovers of their own, which the Thunderbirds turned into 15 points.
Andale is next in action at home Friday, Feb. 6, against McPherson.