Sterling Lady Jets vs. Lewiston(Pioneer Conference Tournament)
January 28, 2008
By John Cockerill
January 29, 2008
Sterling at Lewiston (Monday, Jan 28, 2008)
Sterling girls defeated Lewiston 56 – 29 at Nebraska City Lourdes for the first round of the Pioneer Conference. Lewiston girls came out with some fire. Ashton Albers scored a couple of quick baskets, but then Sterling got things going with their defense and a few steals to take a first quarter lead of 15-9. The second quarter the Lady Jets defense held Lewiston to 3 points to take a 31-12 halftime lead. The second half was played pretty evenly with the Lady Jets holding a slight scoring advantage of 25 -17 through the third and fourth quarters. Coach Cockerill said, “I was real proud of our young ladies concentration tonight. We knew after the Friday nights game they (Lewiston) would come out with some energy. They had outscored us 28-27 in the last three quarters the other night and we felt as a team that we needed to win every quarter tonight, which we did. It sounds like a little thing, but to actually do what you set out to do is quite a big thing in high school athletics. I know the girls are excited about moving on in the tournament and to get a chance to play a team like Freeman with all their tradition and success.”
When senior co-captain McKenzie McAuliffe was asked how she thought her team played she said, “I think we played hard and with a lot of heart and we knew we had to win. Since this is our senior year for a few of us, we wanted to get one last shot at Freeman.”
Sterling had some very balanced scoring and was led in scoring with 19 points from Kala Weber. Three others chipped in 8 points; Courtney VanGroningen, McKenzie McAuliffe & Stephanie Heusman. Lewiston was led by Ashton Albers and her 15 points. Sterling nex plays Tuesday at 6:30 versus Freeman in the second round of the Pioneer Conference.
