Jr. High Basketball
Junior High Girls Basketball A& B teams win home opener;
take part in the Weeping Water tournament!
On Thursday, February 5th before a large crowd at the Palmyra High School gym, the Junior High girls’ basketball teams took on JCC. The home opener proved to be victorious for the A & B teams. Coach Maas commented, “I challenged the girls to be the more physical team, with both teams responding to the challenge and controlling the flow of the game.”
First to take the court was the B team and won by a score of 20-9.
Jessie Poskochil led the Lady Panthers with 6 points. Jordyn
Bottrell, Haley Banahan and Jami Hillman each scored 4 points and
Emily Mach contributed 2.
The A team took charge out on the court and won their contest by a
score of 29-12. Kourtney Kempkes was the leading scorer with 10
points with Dani Vlcek following closely behind with 9. Caitlin
Peterson scored 4. Haley Banahan, Stephanie Vaughn and Shelby Bruss
each contributed 2 to the victory.
Because JCC was low on numbers the C team also played, but were only able to play one quarter. Palmyra lost by a score of 4-2 with Jami Hillman making the lone basket.
On Saturday, February 7th, the A and B teams traveled to
Weeping Water for a tournament. The A team took 3rd in
their bracket and the B team finished 4th.
The B team lost their first game in the tournament to Louisville by
a score of 21-6. Jamy Hall and Carly Frazee each scored 2 points.
Jami Hillman and Jordyn Bottrell each contributed 1. In the
consolation game against Weeping Water the B team put up a heck of
a fight, but couldn’t pull it out in the end. They lost by a score
of 22-20 and finished 4th in their bracket. Carly Frazee
and Paige Huxoll shared the title of high scorer with 8 points
each. Jami Hillman contributed 4.
The A team also lost a heartbreaker in their first game of the
tournament against Louisville. They were down 8-7 at halftime and
took the lead late in the 4th quarter, but just couldn’t
hang on for the win. They lost 26-25. Dani Vlcek was the leading
Lady Panther with 8 points. Megan May & Stephanie Vaughn each
scored 4. Caitlin Peterson had 3 points. Kourtney Kempkes, Shelby
Bruss and Jessie Poskochil each contributed 2 points a piece.
In the consolation game the A team took on Conestoga. Down 16-11 at halftime the Lady Panthers never gave up. They tied the game at 18 at the end of the 3rd quarter and were down by 5 at one point in the 4th quarter. With 15 seconds to go in the game, Caitlin Peterson passed the ball to Kourtney Kempkes who made the winning shot from under the basket. Palmyra then took the lead and held on for the win. The final score was 28-27, and the A team took home 3rd place. Coach Maas commented, “I was very happy with the way the girls bounced back after a tough loss in the opening round. It would have been very easy to pack it in after losing a heart-breaker in round 1, but they responded by winning a close one in round 2.”
The A team is 4-1 on the season, the B team is 3-2 and the C team
is 0-1. The Junior High girls’ basketball teams will be in action
next on February 17th at home against Syracuse. Tip-off
is set for 4:00 p.m.
