LUERS OUTSHOOTS SOUTH ADAMS
BLUFFTON—The Bishop Luers Knights came back from a 14-7 first-quarter deficit to defeat South Adams, 57-46, in the semifinals of the 2A Bluffton Girls’ Basketball Sectional Friday night.
The Starfires (13-11) succeeded in one part of their game plan: holding down Addie Shank, the Knights’ leading scorer. Shank, who sat out much of the second quarter after picking up her third foul, scored only two points in the first half and eight for the game, but teammates Annika Davis (15 points on 5-of-8 three-pointers) and freshman Miley Waring (13 points, including 10 in the second half) stepped up to fill the void and propel Bishop Luers (10-13) to victory.
South Adams dominated the first quarter by forcing the Knights into six turnovers and limiting them to 3-of-11 shooting. Peyton Pries led the Starfires’ offense in the period, scoring six points, including five in the last 45 seconds on a threepointer and a short jumper in the lane.
The Knights started the second quarter with an 8-0 run on their way to outscoring the Starfires 19-10 to take a 26-24 halftime lead. Davis and Reese Rhodehamel each hit a pair of threes in the period, and Waring broke a tie by making a layup at the buzzer.
South Adams knotted the score at 28-28 when Cora Baker hit a short baseline jumper at the 7:17 mark of the third quarter and again at 30-30 on Macy Pries’s stop-andpop jumper with 5:17 left, but Luers took a 13-6 advantage the rest of the period to earn a 43-36 lead.
Waring opened the fourth quarter with a putback on Shank’s miss, and the Knights were up by nine. Though South Adams pulled within five at 47-42 at the 4:06 mark when Peyton Pries hit her second three of the quarter and third of the game, that was as close as the Starfires would get. The Knights scored the next six points—two by Shank and four by Waring—to make it 53-42 with less than three minutes left.
Peyton Pries led the Starfires in scoring with 18 points in her final game. Macy Pries had 10, Liz Gerber eight. Seniors Cora Baker and Delaney Dunnuck scored six and four, respectively.