Viqueens top Knights 58-54 for Corner crown

Fremont-Mills’ Bella Gute, shown here aganst Sidney in the Corner Conference Tournament semifinals, scored 14 points in the Knights finals loss to Stanton Friday.
After a one-year hiatus, the Stanton girls are once again Corner Conference Tournament Champions.
The Viqueens, winners of five of the last six conference crowns, avenged a loss to Fremont-Mills in last year’s finals with a 58-54 over the Knights in Friday’s finals in Griswold.
Stanton (11-3 overall, 5-0 in the conference) led by as many as 20 points in the game and had to hold off a late rally by the Knights (9-5 overall, 6-2 in the conference).
Fremont-Mills cut a 14-point fourth quarter lead to four with two minutes to go. But that was as close as they would get in a second straight loss to Viqueens this season.
Lauren Johnson poured in 18 and Hannah Olson and Riley Burke each chipped in 17 points apiece to lead Stanton.
The Knights were led by Bela Gute, Carlie Nuckolls and Lana Alley’s 14 points each.
East Mills 45,
Sidney 34
Caitlyn Crouse and Ava Grindle scored 11 points each to pace East Mills in a 45-34 win over Sidney in the third-place game at the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament in Griswold Friday.
Addyson Foster had 12 points to lead Sidney.
Stanton 60,
East Mills 41
Stanton got off to another quick start, using its full-court pressure defense to flip turnovers into easy buckets to dig East Mills a 20-point hole midway through the second quarter in a 60-41 victory in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals last Wednesday.
The Viqueens led 18-7 after a quarter and saw that margin grow to 40-17 at the half.
“When we got in rhythm, especially against their man-to-man, we were scoring pretty regularly out of our halfcourt offense,” said Stanton coach Dave Snyder after the game. “But our steals and getting easy layups is what we’re looking for too.”
The Wolverines never seemed to get comfortable in the first half. The 17 first half points were their second lowest since scoring just seven in a 43-11 loss to the same Viqueens two weeks ago.
“We waited too late to show up to the basketball game,” said East Mills coach Lexi Moreno. “It took us a while to settle in and run our game plan.”
The Wolverines did show up in the second half. They opened the third quarter on a 12-5 run to cut the lead to 16 with just over three minutes to go to force Snyder to take a timeout and settle his team.
“The second half, when you have a first half like we did, you’re going to have a little bit of a stale second half,” Snyder said. “I do feel like when they cut it to 16, we responded really well and got the lead back to 21 real fast. I was very happy with that. And bottom line, we’re in the finals.”
East Mills would cut the lead to 17 again in the fourth but that was as close as they would get. The Wolverines did outscore the Viqueens 24-20 after halftime.
“The last few games we’ve played exceptionally well in the second half, we really have to work on not digging ourselves a hole in the first quarter,” Moreno said. “We won the second half tonight, and I’m really proud of how the girls were able to come together and play some sound basketball.”
Lauren Johnson paced the Viqueens with 21 points. Riley Burke chipped in 14 and Hannah Olson 11.
Caitlyn Crouse scored 14 and Ava Grindle 13 to lead East Mills.
Fremont-Mills 43,
Sidney 33
Fremont-Mills opened the third quarter on 11-2 run and used its sharp defensive effort to pull away from Sidney for a 43-33 win in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals in Stanton last Wednesday.
The Knights’ third quarter run came after a second quarter that saw them struggle offensively, allowing the Cowgirls to whittle a double-digit lead down to 18-17 at the break.
A halftime pep talk from head coach Brett Weldon appeared to turn the Knights’ around.
“I told them at halftime we kind of lost our head there, worrying about the officials and worrying about the physical play,” Weldon said after the game. “We told them to not worry about, we can’t control that and just go out and play and they did that in the third quarter.”
The Knights set the tone defensively with its full-court, active man-to-man defense.
“We play good man-to-man defense,” Weldon said. “Teams aren’t able to prepare for that as much. We tried to switch defenses a little bit there to give the girls a break and then they hit some threes, so we went back to it. But defense and turning that into offense was huge for us.”
Fremont-Mills took a 33-25 lead into the fourth and then Bella Gute took over. The senior guard hit a free throw, a three-pointer and assisted on nifty pass to Carlie Nuckolls to push the lead to 37-25.
Gute’s third three-pointer of the game was a dagger that gave the Knights a 42-27 lead with just under three minutes to go.
“She is a great athlete and a competitor,” Weldon said of Gute. “She plays so hard. She needs rest and we just can’t take her out because she has to be out there for us. She does so much for us on offense and defense and works her butt off.”
Gute finished with 21 points while grabbing five steals. Nuckolls added eight points.
Sidney was led by Marley Shull’s 12 points.
East Mills 41,
Griswold 38
East Mills edged Griswold 41-38 in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball quarterfinals last Monday in Stanton.
Caitlyn Crouse and Ava Grindle scored 11 points each to lead the Wolverines.
Carsyn Adams scored 10 points and Amanda Houser eight to lead Griswold.
Fremont-Mills 47,
Essex 24
Fremont-Mills built a 30-11 halftime lead en route to a 47-24 victory over Essex in the opening round at the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament last Monday in Stanton.
Bella Gute led the Knights with 12 points. Carlie Nuckolls chipped in 10 points and Carlie Chambers eight.
Paityn Vanatta paced Essex with 11 points and 15 rebounds.