East Mills comeback comes up short, 54-53

Stanton withstood a late East Mills comeback to edge the Wolverines 54-53 in Corner Conference girls basketball Friday in Malvern.

The Wolverines trailed 47-36 heading into the fourth quarter before clawing back to make it a one point game. But that’s as close as they’d get in the conference home loss. The Wolverines out-scored Stanton 17-7 in the final frame.
East Mills was led by Emily Williams’ 19 points and eight rebounds. Alex Knop added 14 points and 11 rebounds and Miah Urban chipped in 15 points and six steals.

Jenna Stephens scored 17 points and Hope Ogletree added 12 points to lead Stanton.

East Atchison 43,
Fremont-Mills 37

Fremont-Mills got down 13-2 after a quarter and never recovered in a 43-37 loss at East Atchison Thursday.

The Knights (3-2 overall, 3-0 in the Corner Conference) struggled to find their shooting touch – 36.8 percent – while putting up their second lowest point total so far this season.

Teagan Ewalt led the Knights with 17 points. The freshman hit 6-of-7 shots and pulled down four rebounds.
Kilea Cooper scored 13 points and Jaycee Graves added 12 to lead East Atchison.

Fremont-Mills 63,
East Mills 57

A rejuvenated defensive effort by East Mills trimmed a 14-point Fremont-Mills second half lead to just one but the Knights got some defensive stops of their own and some clutch late free throw shooting down the stretch to hold on for a 63-57 victory in Malvern last Tuesday.

After a sharp offensive first half of basketball, the Knights struggled to get good shots off in the second half, scored just 18 points but got five big free throws from Courtney Goodman, who scored  a game-high 25 points, in the final two minutes.

“We saw the same thing against Logan-Magnolia, we struggled handling defensive pressure,” said Fremont-Mills coach Brett Weldon after the game. “That’s on us coaches to get us prepared for that because I think we’ll see more of that, or some box-and-one on Courtney, so we needed to be prepared for that.”

The Knights opened the game on a 10-2 run and pushed their lead to 35-21 at halftime. The lead stayed at double-figures for much of the second half until the Wolverines’ began to claw back thanks to their defense.

A pair of Alex Knop free throws with 5:18 to go trimmed the lead to 46-38. A pair of buckets by Emily Williams and a December McGrew and then a free throw by Williams made it 46-43 with just under three minutes to go.
 

Another baseline jumper by McGrew had the Wolverines within a point at 46-45 with 2:32 to go. Three of East Mills’ buckets in the 9-0 run came via steals.

But that’s where the Wolverine comeback would end.

Goodman, who had been kept in check much of the second after exploding for 18 first half points, hit a pair of free throws to end the Knights’ nearly four minute drought. Goodman would hit 3-of-4 free throws to ice the win as the

Knights hold East Mills to a single point over the final two minutes.
   

The Knights’ got the looks they wanted, passed the ball and well scored 35 first half points behind Goodman’s  opening half 18. But the second half offense didn’t have the same efficiency or crispness.

“We shoot it well in practice so it was good to see us all kind of shooting it well at the same time in the first half,” Weldon said.

Goodman finished with a season-high 25 points on 8-of-16 shooting. She also snagged seven rebounds and five steals.

Teagan Ewalt added 10 points and Kaelynn Driskell six.

“Teagan had to step up and handle the ball in some situations and she had some freshmen struggles but she hit some big shots at the end,” Weldon said. “That will only make all of them us better. It was a fund game to play in.”

The Wolverines shot 26.2 percent (16-of-61) from the field – including a rough 3-of-21 from behind the arc –and were out-rebounded 41 to 32.

Both Williams and Knop notched double-doubles to lead the Wolverines. Both scored 12 points and pulled down 11 rebounds each. Natalie Goodman connected on 3-of-8 three pointers and scored 11 points.

Logan-Magnolia 53,
Fremont-Mills 30

Fremont-Mills had no answer for Logan-Magnolia’s Kylie Morrison in a 53-40 out-of-conference loss for the Knights last Monday.

The Panthers got out to a 15-6 lead and cruised as Morrison scored a game-high 29 points on 12-of-25 shooting with eight rebounds and six steals.

The Knights struggled offensively, shooting just 27.9 percent from the field (12-of-43).
Kaelynn Driskell led Fremont-Mills with 10 points. Kaylee Wright added nine and eight rebounds.

East Mills 52,
Woodbine 44

Miah Urban and Alex Knop combined for 33 points to lead East Mills to a 52-44 victory over Woodbine in a non-conference girls basketball tilt last Monday.

Urban scored a team-high 17 points and grabbed five rebounds. Knop scored 16 and pulled down a 11 rebounds.

Emily Williams chipped in 14 points and nine rebounds of her own for East Mills.

Nicole Sherer and Whitney Kuhlman scored 11 points each to lead Woodbine.
 

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