Knights win first Corner crown since 2015

Defense wins championships.

It may be a coaching cliché, but in the case of Fremont-Mills, it’s oh so true.

The Knights used their defense, all active hands and full-court pressure, to harass and hold Stanton to a season-low in points in a dominating 50-28 victory in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament championship game in Tabor Saturday night.

The conference title is the Knights’ first since 2015. It also snaps Stanton’s four-year streak winning the conference crown.

Fremont-Mills coach Brett Weldon said the Corner title, frankly, wasn’t on his team’s preseason goals – because his team talks more about standards than goals, the coach said.

“I just told them if you come to practice every day and work your butt off and leave it better than you found it, if you do that every day, every day, good things are going to happen,” Weldon said. “And this is one of those good things.”

The Knights meant business from the opening tip. They scored the first seven points and led 14-3 after a quarter that saw them hold Stanton to 1-of-9 shooting from the field while turning the ball over seven times.

That lead swelled to as many as 16 in the first half.

The Viqueens found themselves down 30-13 midway through the third quarter when they rattled off an 8-0 run to cut the margin to 30-21 with two minutes to go in the frame. But a layup by the Knights’ Ella Thornton and a short runner and two free throws by Emily Madison pushed the lead back to 36-23 to end the third.

The first bucket by leading scorer Izzy Weldon kicked off a fourth quarter Knight run that made the score 42-24 with just under five minutes to go. The Viqueens would get no closer than 16 points the rest of the way.

Madison led the Knights with 19 points. Elle Switzer added 12 points and Thornton 11. Izzy Weldon, the Knights’ second leading scorer entering the game, was held to just two points, thanks mostly to a Stanton box-and-one defense designed to limit her touches.

Coach Weldon said his team was prepared for a “junk defense.”

“They went a little different than what we thought with who they guarded but it’s one of those being unselfish where they’re guarding you and you’re running them off screens and you might not score but you’re creating and you’re playing great defense,” the coach said.

Stanton coach Dave Snyder said he hoped the box-and-one on Weldon would get the Knights out of synch. But that hope never quite came to fruition.

“You just hope it sends them in a tailspin and make them not feel too good about their offense,” Snyder said. “Obviously, they had some girls step up, that’s going to happen. Sometimes with a box and one you put it on, you take it off, you put it on, take it off kinda thing and I

just didn’t feel that was the way to go tonight. But that was our plan and to a certain extent it worked.”

It was the Knights’ success on defense that was the difference. They bottled up Stanton’s leading scorers, guard Leah Sandin and forwards Lauren Johnson and Hannah Olson. The trio combined for 20 of the Viqueens’ points but well below their averages.

“They have a really good offensive scheme they run, and we prepared for it as best we could,” Weldon said. “We did a good job. There were a few lapses, but we’re fast enough and quick enough to recover and we were able to cover up their best players. They’re just a really good team and they’re well coached. I was just proud of the girls.”
    
East Mills 55,
Griswold 19

Jenna Thornburg scored 16 points and Venna Sayers 14 to lead East Mills to a 55-19 win over Griswold in the Corner Conference girls basketball tournament consolation round Saturday.

The Wolverines (7-7) jumped out to a 24-10 lead at halftime in the win.

Stanton 49,
East Mills 41

Hannah Olson scored 20 points and Lauren Johnson 12 to help Stanton pull away from East Mills late in a 49-41 victory in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals last Wednesday in Tabor.

The Viqueens used a 10-0 first quarter run to take 14-5 lead into the second quarter, but the Wolverines responded with a 9-0 run of their own before halftime to stay within shouting distance.

East Mills fell behind by as many as nine in both the third and fourth quarters but cut that lead down to two both times but could get no closer in a rugged second meeting between the two teams.

Stanton Coach Dave Snyder said the game wasn’t always pretty but a “win is a win.

“It got a little ugly,” Snyder said. “But if we’re going to have a chance Friday (against Fremont-Mills in the finals) we’re going to have to make it ugly. The uglier we can make it the better chance we have.”

Olson and Johnson both had big nights. Olson had six rebounds and three steals to go with her game-high 20 and Johnson notched a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

“Going in, we figured inside was where we were going to be able to score some points,” Snyder said. “And that’s how it worked out. I don’t think we hit a three. We had to do what we had to do to get that ‘W’ and that was a big part of it.”

Mia Goodman paced East Mills with 14 points. Ruby Hastie added nine points and Jenna Thornburg seven.

The Wolverines didn’t shoot it great – 39.1 percent from the field – but coach Lexi Moreno said her team was patient in their halfcourt offensive, first against the Trojanettes 1-3-2 zone and then their 1-2-2. They got the shots they wanted on most possessions – but they didn’t always fall.

“That was our goal tonight, we knew they play sound defense and we needed to be crisp with our offense and take care of the ball,” Moreno said. “I thought we did real good job of getting it inside and distributing.”    

Fremont-Mills 63,
Griswold 22

Fremont-Mills scored the game’s first 17 points and extended that lead to 32 by halftime in a 63-22 victory over Griswold in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals last Wednesday in Tabor.

The Knights’ pressure defense forced 10 first quarter turnovers and held the Tiges scoreless the first six minutes of the game. They led 41-9 at halftime.

“I was really happy with our defensive intensity, especially in the first half,” said Fremont-Mills coach Brett Weldon. “We talked about making everything they try to do be as difficult as possible. We were able to turn defense to offense, get some wide-open looks from three and some easy baskets in the paint.

“I’m not sure how we could start a game any better. When we hit shots early, we gain confidence as a team, and we seem to play loose.”

The Knights grabbed a season-high 25 steals and turned the ball themselves just seven times.

“That’s extra possessions that really benefit us if we aren’t shooting well, but when we create extra possessions and shoot the ball well, we are a tough team to play against,” Weldon said.

Offensively, the Knights hit 9-of-20 from behind the arc and notched 14 assists on 23 made field goals. Izzy Weldon and Ryleigh Ewalt paced four players in double-figures with 13 points each. Bella Gute chipped inn11 and Ella Thornton 10.

East Mills 41,
Sidney 26

East Mills outscored Sidney 24-13 after halftime to pull away from Sidney in a 41-26 win in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament opening round last Tuesday.

Venna Sayers put in 11 points and Jenna Thornburg 10 to lead East Mills.

Lilly Peters scored 13 points to lead Sidney.