The Kewanee Boiler Girls picked up a hard-fought 54-49 road win Thursday night in Manlius.
The TRAC-East game was close throughout. The Boiler Girls held a slight 13-12 advantage after the first quarter of play.
Freshman Bailey VanWinkle drained a three from the top of the key to get the Boiler Girls on the board at 3-2. Moments later, Bureau Valley senior guard Kate Salisbury returned the favor, giving the Storm the 10-6 lead.
Kewanee forward Tejhiana Amos closed out the quarter with a stop and pop 3-pointer from the top of the key for the 13-12 lead.
At the beginning of the second quarter, junior point guard Mya Dearing threw a long pass to Amos, in stride, for a layup. Amos completed the 3-point play, stretching the lead to 19-14.
Midway through the second quarter Kewanee scored on consecutive backdoor cut buckets. On the first, freshman Damaris Diaz found sophomore Taylor VanWinkle cutting to the basket for the 22-14 score.
On Kewanee’s next possession, Diaz again had the ball at the elbow, this time passing to Amos cutting to the basket. Amos made the basket, was fouled and completed the 3-point play to give the Boiler Girls an 11-point advantage at 25-14.
Shortly after, Salisbury did a nice ball fake and launched a smooth 3-pointer that dropped in for the 25-17 halftime score. It was just BV’s second basket of the quarter as Kewanee outscored the Storm 12-5 in the frame.
At the beginning of the third quarter, Taylor VanWinkle found sister Bailey cutting to the basket for the 29-19 score.
BV senior forward Lynzie Cady followed with a short jumper in the lane, but Dearing soon after drove in for a layup to keep Kewanee’s lead at 10 (31-21).
Dearing followed that up with another driving layup, this time getting fouled and completing the 3-point play for the 34-22 score.
At the end of the quarter, Storm guard Lesleigh Maynard made a jumper and soon after BV junior guard Taylor Neuhalfen made good on two free throws to close the gap, 34-26.
On the final play of the third quarter, junior guard Aaliyah Duarte passed the ball to Diaz for two to put the Boiler Girls back on top by 10 at 36-26.
The intensity amped up for both teams in the high scoring 23-18 fourth quarter. The Storm made a good run at Kewanee as Neuhalfen scored on back-to-back buckets and junior forward Izabella Birkey completed the and one for the 41-35 score.
A rebound basket by Salisbury cut the Kewanee lead to just three at 45-42. The Boiler Girls answered with a turnaround jumper in the lane by Dearing and a short baseline jumper by Duarte for the 48-43 score.
Stoller made a big 3-pointer off an out of bounds to cut the lead again to three at 49-46 with 55 seconds left.
Dearing made a pair of clutch free throws and Diaz made 2 of 3 down the stretch for Kewanee’s final points. Salisbury banked in one final 3-pointer for the 54-49 final score.
A key stat of the game was Kewanee making 14 of 16 at the line in the fourth quarter. Dearing was the high-scorer of the game with 20 points and Amos followed with 17 on the night.
Salisbury led Bureau Valley with 17 points, while Neuhalfen and Cady each had eight.
Frosh-soph
The frosh-soph game was close throughout as well. Bureau Valley had a 19-16 lead at the half. Nolie Charlet scored seven first half points and Annie Campbell added five for Kewanee.
At the end of the third quarter, the Storm had a one point lead of 27-26. By the end of the fourth quarter it appeared that Boiler Girls’ fate was sealed, down 36-34.
With just 2.5 seconds left in the game, Kewanee’s Kieryn Abernathy rebounded a missed Bureau Valley free throw and heaved the ball ahead to Audrey Clucas who had barely crossed the halfcourt line. Clucas threw up a hope and a prayer and the ball banked off the backboard glass and went in for the 37-36 Kewanee win.
Clucas scored seven second half points and Campbell added six. Campbell led the Boiler Girls with 11 total points, Clucas had no e and Charlet added seven in the win.
