New Knoxville beats Botkins
NEW KNOXVILLE — New Knoxville jumped out in front of Botkins in Saturday’s non-conference girls basketball game and never looked back.
The Rangers led 11-3 5:28 through the first quarter and Morgan Leffel continued to fuel the offense with 16 second-half points as the Rangers beat the Trojans 52-32.
The Rangers (13-2) jumped out to that 11-3 start courtesy of making their first three shots and five of seven of the game.
Two of those field goals came from Avery Henschen, who powered her way under the basket for two layups and a 4-0 lead.
Janel Platfoot answered with a 3-pointer 29 seconds later to pull the game to its closest margin but Haley Fledderjohann answered on the other end with her trey and the sophomore guard found Ellie Gabel in the paint as the junior deposited two. Following a missed 3-pointer by Botkins, Carsyn Henschen cleaned up her missed layup with another one to put the score at 11-3 with 2:32 remaining in the first quarter.
Botkins shot just 1-of-8 from the floor in that first quarter compared to New Knoxville’s 6-of-8 mark to lead 14-5 after the first stanza.
The Rangers continued to push their lead in the second, leading by as much as 22-9 followed a free throw by Henschen and the junior post drove to the basket from the left side to drop the ball in with 20 seconds left to give New Knoxville its largest first-half lead at 24-9 before Carmen Hueker’s jumper with 8.2 seconds left settled the score at 24-11 at the half.
Morgan Leffel opened the second-half scoring with a bucket in transition 1:49 into the third quarter as the senior scored 16 secondhalf points after being shut out in the first half — including 10 in that third quarter.
The senior added two more points on a pair of free throws to open the fourth quarter and four more on a putback off a missed 3-pointer and was fed by Henschen with 1:20 left to push New Knoxville’s lead to 50-30.
Following Leffel’s game-high 16 points were Henschen and Gabel each with 11 points and nine points from Carsyn Henschen. Heuker paced the Trojans with 13 points.
Saturday’s win marked New Knoxville’s third straight and fifth in the last six games. The 12-3 record is the best record through 15 games for the program since the 2011-12 New Knoxville team opened its first 15 games with the same mark.
The Rangers also earned a win in junior varsity action with a 41-26 victory.
New Knoxville will travel on Tuesday to Fort Loramie as they face the top-ranked Redskins.
__ ST. MARYS 46, BRYAN 39
BRYAN — The St. Marys Roughriders girls basketball team won their sixth consecutive game with a 46-39 non-league victory against Bryan on Saturday.
The Roughriders (13-3) led at the end of every quarter, beginning with an 11-8 lead after the first quarter, and outscored Bryan slightly in the third quarter, 12-9, to pull away with the win. St. Marys secured the win in the fourth quarter by going 10-of-14 from the free-throw
line.
St. Marys was led by two players on Saturday in Kendall Dieringer with 14 points and 13 from Noey Ruane as the duo accounted for 27 of the team’s 46 points.
Kiley Tennant added seven points and Karsyn McGlothen contributed six points.
The Roughriders will host No. 2-ranked Minster on Tuesday.
__ MINSTER 48, ANNA 26
ANNA — The Minster Wildcats used a 16-0 third quarter to pull away from Anna for a 48-26 non-conference win on Saturday.
The Wildcats led by just four at the half, 2117, but went on a 16-0 run in the third quarter to push their lead to 37-17 by the end of the third quarter.
The win marks the 12 straight victory for Minster.
Ivy Wolf led the Wildcats with 19 points and three boards, followed by Ella Mescher with 10 points and Janae Hoying with six points and three rebounds.
Minster will travel on Tuesday to St. Marys to take on the Roughriders.
__
The St. Marys Roughriders junior high girls basketball team split their weekend games with Marion Local on Saturday.
The Riders seventh-grade team won 34-19. Lauren Jacobs and Sophie Menker paced the Riders with 11 and nine points, respectively. Madi Steger connected for six points, while Logan Henschen had four points. Hannah Brackman and Ady Van De Keere each scored two points.
The team improved to 10-3.
The eighth-grade fell to the Flyers, in still a high-scoring game, 46-30.
Reese Rable led the Riders with 13 points. Cadence Hirschfeld contributed seven points, while Chloe Ott had four points. Reghan Puthoff, Alexis Shadrach and Stella Wehner all had two points each.
The Riders play the Parkway Panthers on Monday.