Knight girls win, Cougars, Lancers lose

Independent girls’ basketball roundup

The Crestview girls had little trouble with Spencerville, winning 58-28, while the Van Wert Lady Cougars remained winless with a 43-31 loss against Celina and Lincolnview’s girls suffered a 46-27 loss to Lima Central Catholic in games played Thursday.

Crestview seniors Emily Bauer and Brady Guest combined for 32 points — four more points than the entire Lady Bearcats team — and the Knight defense kept Spencerville (7-13, 3-4 NWC) off balance the entire night as Crestview (14-4, 5-1 NWC) got its fifth Northwest Conference win and its 14th overall victory on the season.

Bauer led the Knights with 19 points, while Guest added 13 points for Crestview. Lyvia Black had 9 points for the Knights, while Paige Motycka scored 8 points for Crestview. Jacey Grigsby was the Bearcats’ top scorer with 10 points.

The Knights’ field goal shooting wasn’t spectacular (20 of 47 for 42 percent), but Crestview made more than twice as many free throws as Spencerville (13 of 17 versus 6 of 10).

The Knights also had the edge in rebounding, bringing down 25 boards to 19 for Spencerville. Crestview also had two fewer turnovers, 12-14, than the Bearcats.

Celina took control of its game with the Lady Cougars early, with a 14-6 run in the first quarter than gave the Lady Bulldogs an eight-point lead. Celina built on that in the second period, outscoring the Cougars 12-8 to increase their lead to 12 points, 26-14, at the half. It was 36-19 at the end of the third quarter, while Van Wert went on a 12-7 run in the final stanza for the final scoring difference.

Abby Jackson led the Cougars with 8 points, while Reagan Priest added 7 points for Van Wert. Celina was led by Kelly Stahl’s 15 points, while Jenna Berry added 12 points for the Bulldogs.

LCC also scored early and often to put the Lady Lancers in a hole they couldn’t climb out of.

The Lady Thunderbirds were up 7-2 after the first quarter and led by 17 points, 25-8, after a big second 18-6 second-quarter run. The score was 41-12 after three quarters of play, while the Lincolnview girls outscored LCC 15-5 to get within 19 points of the T-Birds.

Natalie Snider led LCC with 15 points, while Madison Stolly added 13 points for the T-Birds. Maddie Gorman had 7 points to lead Lincolnview, while Kayla Schimmoeller and Lakin Brant added 6 points for the Lady Lancers.