Rangers power past Riders
After jumping out to a big lead in Thursday’s game against Marion Local just for the Flyers
to nearly steal the game away, New Knoxville made sure that same scenario didn’t happen again on Saturday.
The Rangers raced out to a 17-2 first-quar
ter lead, senior Morgan Leffel scored a game- high 20 points and the New Knoxville only allowed one player score in double figures for a 53-25 non-conference
victory against St. Marys on Saturday at Memorial High School.
“When you are up 20 points, like I told them in there, that’s when you put the hammer
down,” Rangers coach Tim Hegemier said. “Take care of the basketball, score and don’t throw the basketball away and that’s something we have to work on.”
The Rangers (3- 0) were efficient in the opening eight minutes by shooting 7-of- 10 from the floor and leading 17-2 — nine of those points courtesy of Leffel, who scored five of those nine points in transition.
“I think we beat them down the floor, we got a lot of layups and things were clicking for us,” Hegemier added.
The Riders (2-1) meanwhile shot 1-of- 6 from the floor and turned the ball over seven times in the first 7:30 of the game.
“I thought that came down to offensive execution on our turnovers and them getting out in transition,” Roughriders coach Jon Burke said. “When we did get baskets, they beat us in transition early in the first quarter — we fixed that for the rest of the game — but when you’re down 17-2, that’s a big hole to try to come back from.”
St. Marys’ offense connected for points on seven of nine posses
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sions to close a 17-2 deficit to 27-17 with 1:47 remaining in the first half with eight of those points coming from Kendall Dieringer. Dieringer accounted for 10 of the Roughriders’ 17 first-half points.
“With New Knoxville, you know what you are going to get, they just execute very well. Defensively, you know you are going up against a physical man- to-man defense and offensively you know you are coming off a flex offense with the motions of their offense,” Burke said. “Scouting-wise, you know what’s coming it is just a matter of executing.
“I thought we got the ball in the paint and we either got blocked, deflected or didn’t finish and a big part of that was the physicality in the paint that they had.”
Still a 10-point game with 2:59 left in the third quarter, New Knoxville shut the door on any kind of Riders comeback with back- to-back 3-pointers from Ellie Gabel, followed by a bucket and free throw by the junior and Leffel’s desperation half- court 3-pointer at the buzzer following a St. Marys’ turnover pushed the Rangers’ lead to 43- 24. New Knoxville shot 5-of- 6 from the floor in the third quarter.
St. Marys finished the second half shooting 7-of-21 from the floor.
“Early in the game I thought we had some pretty good looks they just didn’t drop and later in the game we were definitely throwing up some desperate threes trying to come back in the game,” “Not hitting outside shots any night is going to hurt for us.”
Leffel did most of her damage in transition, knotting one of her game-high 20 points that way — including seven of her 13 coming from transition in the first half.
“Early in the season she was kind of missing them, but I think she is getting a little bit more healthier,” Hegemier said of his senior. “She’s really stepped up and playing really good and that’s what we’ve got to have.”
Three players finished in double figures for New Knoxville, including Leffel, with Gabel scoring 12 and Avery Henschen contributing 10 points. Dieringer led St. Marys with 12 points.
“It’s one game at a time,” Hegemier said. “Next week we have Coldwater and they have a big 6-foot-3 girl and that will be another problem. We just need to keep improving every game.”
The Roughriders earned a win in junior varsity play 44-20, led by Amelia Ankerman with 14 points. Morgan Hesse added one and Halle Huston finished with 8 points. Allison Topp led the Rangers with eight points.
The Roughriders will continue their four- game home stretch with a game against Delphos St. John’s on Tuesday while the Rangers will travel on Thursday to Coldwater.