Redskins beat Rangers
FORT LORAMIE — In a matchup between two top teams in Division IV, the top-ranked Fort Loramie Redskins overcame 11th-ranked New Knoxville Rangers with a 42-24 victory on Tuesday.
“In the first half they were banging us inside pretty hard,” said Redskins coach Carla Siegel. “We challenged them at halftime, ‘they’re physical and banging with us, you’ve got to respond.’ I thought Dana and Kenzie did a much better job in the third quarter with that.”
It was a tight first half, but a third-quarter run that lasted the whole quarter turned the tide in favor of the Redskins (17-1) as their depth played a factor. The Redskins go three to four players on their bench while the Rangers (13-3) have a much shorter, six player rotation.
In a low scoring defensive game, the Redskins won the game with a 7-0 run to start the second half as they outscored the Rangers 13-3 overall in the third quarter and held them to zero field goals.
First, it was Redskins guard Corynn Heitkamp with a steal. She was fouled going coast to coast and went 1-of-2 at the free-throw line with Kenzie Hoelscher fighting for the offensive rebound and winning them possession as the ball rolled out of bounds.
That led to a Redskins basket from forward Dana Rose. A few turnovers later from both teams, Caitlyn Gasson scored in transition to make it 19-12 and Rose capped off the run pushing the ball in transition and pivoting for a layup to make it 21-12 to force a Rangers’ timeout with 5:32 in the third quarter.
“It was us,” said Rangers coach Tim Hegemier. “We came out in the second half, turned it over three or four times in a row. Boom, all of the sudden you’re down 10. You get down 10 against a good team like this, it’s tough to come back.”
A free throw from Fledderjohann were the team’s first points of the second half with 4:20 in the third as they failed to convert on many close attempts at the rim in the second half.
“We had three or four turnovers off the bat, missed three or four shots around the rim that should go down,” said Hegemier. “The ball wasn’t going down for us, we had open looks, just didn’t knock them down. We’re better than that.”
Six free throws later, four from the Redskins and two from the Rangers, Colleen Brandewie scored a layup cutting down the middle of the lane off of an inbounds play with around a minute to go after the Redskins had taken a timeout to put the Redskins up 27-15 after three quarters.
“I thought our rotations were better, we did a better job harassing them and not giving them open looks,” said Siegel on the third quarter run.
Another 7-0 Redskins run to start the third quarter; a Brandewie 3-pointer, two Hoelscher free throws and a layup from Jadyn Puthoff, put the Redskins firmly in the lead, 34-15.
Brandewie added nine points off the bench and Puthoff had eight points and five rebounds. Ellie Gabel led the Rangers with eight points, followed by six from Fledderjohann.