Last week, the Lennox High School girls’ basketball team earned a 56-30 win over Platte-Geddes on Jan. 22 and suffered back-to-back losses at the hands of Sisseton (60-49) on Jan. 23 and Parkston (47-42) on Jan. 25.
Against, Platte several Orioles contributed to the scoring efforts. Andie Peters led the way with 12 points, Teagan Sturm finished with eight, Ryan Hanssen finished with seven, both Ashlee Sweeter and Carli Kuyper had six, Karlie Bosma five, Olivia Niederbaumer four, Libby Kranz and Gavyn Herlyn three each, and Dani Highum two.
“We played well on both ends of the court holding Platte to 30.0% shooting while we racked up fourteen assists. It was also exciting to see ten different Orioles score throughout the game,” said LHS head coach Adam Quail.
Leading the team in rebounds was Kuyper with seven. Bosma pulled down six in the game. Herlyn led the team in assist with three in the game and both Sturm and Sweeter had two steals.
On Jan. 23, the Orioles faced off against undefeated #1 Sisseton, this was a postponed Hanson Classic game, played in Volga. Lennox jumped out to an early 21-11 lead after the first quarter. However, the Orioles were outscored 18-11 in the second, 16-9 in the third and 15-8 in the fourth, losing 60-49.
“We started the game by playing our best quarter of the year and ended the first quarter with a 21-11 lead. The lead shrank to 3 points by halftime and unfortunately, Sisseton wore us down in the second half and we were unable to overcome their 34 points in the paint,” said Quail.
Quail was impressed with Kuyper’s play.
“She really held her own against tough competition as she was aggressive in the post getting to the foul line while shooting 10/10 from the stripe,” he added.
Kuyper finished the night with 15 points. She also had three rebounds. Highum added 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and had one assist. Peters finished with ten points, hitting three from three-point range. Hanssen and Bosma both ended the night with four points, Herlyn had three and Sturm two. Bosma led the team in rebounds with seven in the game. Sturm led in assists with four. Peters led in steals with three on the night.
Faced with another tough opponent on Jan. 25, the Orioles trailed early, falling behind 14-5 in the opening quarter against Parkston and despite a solid come-back in the second half they weren’t able to overtake the Trojans, falling 47-42.
“We couldn’t overcome our extremely slow first quarter, but I was proud with how we competed in the second half,” said Quail.
Highum paced the Orioles offensively with 18 points and five rebounds while Bosma finished with six points, four rebounds, and two assists and Sturm added eight points, three rebounds, and two assist, providing energy in the second half. Kuyper also scored eight points in the game and grabbed six rebounds. Herlyn added two points and had three assists and three steals.
The Orioles were scheduled to take on Elk Point Jefferson on Tuesday, Jan. 30 on the road in double-header action with the LHS boys. They will be at Baltic on Thursday, Feb. 1 and will compete in the Dax XII/NEC Clash on Saturday, Feb. 3 in Madison. Lennox is set to face off against Hamlin at 2 p.m.