Spencerville surges past Lincolnview

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Lincolnview hung tough during the first half, but undefeated Spencerville used a dominate third quarter to spark a 57-43 Northwest Conference girls’ basketball win on Thursday.

The Lady Lancers trailed 24-20 at halftime and quickly trimmed the deficit to just one on a trey by Brianna Ebel. From there, the visiting Bearcats went on a 12-2 scoring run to build up a 36-25 lead. 6-4 senior Alex Carter and sophomore guard Gillian Goecke scored all of Spencerville’s points during that run, while Adia Welch accounted for Lincolnview’s basket.

“Good teams are hard to hold down for 32 minutes and they’re a good team,” Lincolnview head coach Dan Williamson said. “We couldn’t have played much better in the first half, only being down four. We made some shots, they missed some shots, but they made those shots in the second half and we started to miss some.”

“It’s something we talked about at halftime,” Spencerville head coach Greg Elkis said of his team’s productive third quarter. “We needed to pick up our pace, intensity and effort level and we did that in the second half.”

Armed with a 40-28 lead after three quarters, Spencerville (6-0, 2-0 NWC) rode the hot hand of Abbygayle Satterfield in the fourth quarter. The 5-9 senior scored all 10 of her points in the period.

The two teams spent most of the first half trading baskets. Kelsey Shaffer drained three triples in the first quarter, while Lincolnview’s Adia Welch countered with a pair of her own, and Spencerville led 15-13 after the opening quarter.

A trey by Annie Mendenhall gave Lincolnview a 20-17 lead with 4:10 left in the second quarter, but the Lady Lancers would not score again in the period. Lakin Brant came out of the game with three fouls with 3:59 left, then Spencerville used a pair of foul shots by Goecke, a basket by Carter and a deep triple by Shaffer to turn the a three point deficit into a four point halftime lead.

“She makes us go,” Williamson said of Brant. “She can handle the ball, she can pass and find open players and she’s starting to score a little more this year as a senior. We have to have her on the floor.”

Shaffer led Spencerville with 12 points, Carter scored 11 and Satterfield and Olivia Goecke scored 10 each. The Bearcats held a commanding 31-15 rebounding advantage, including 18 offensive rebounds.

Welch led the Lady Lancers with 12 points, while Brianna Ebel and Lakin Brant scored nine apiece.

“I’m proud of how our girls battled and didn’t back down,” Williamson said. “We were obviously undersized and our numbers were a little bit low tonight, but we didn’t back down.”

“They’re 6-0 for a reason,” Williamson added. “They have outstanding guards and a big post player to go with them. They have a nice team.”

Lincolnview (2-4, 0-1 NWC) will host Wayne Trace on Monday.

Scoring summary

Lincolnview  13 7   8 15 – 43
Spencerville 15 9 16 17 – 57

Lincolnview: Brianna Ebel 3-0-9; Sami Sellers 1-0-2; Adia Welch 5-0-12; Lakin Brant 3-3-9; Annie Mendenhall 3-0-7; Kendall Bollenbacher 1-2-4

Spencerville: Kelsey Shaffer 4-0-12; Abbygayle Satterfield 5-0-12; Nelaya Burden 1-0-2; Emma Leis 3-0-6; Alex Carter 5-1-11; Gillian Goecke 4-2-10; Olivia Goecke 3-0-6