Bluebirds Down Eagles in Classic 1st Round
Goessel Varsity Girls Basketball - Elyria Christian @ Goessel December 4, 2018
With 5 minutes left in the contest, Goessel’s Bluebirds had kept the Eagles grounded with only two field goals. In turn, the Eagles had stifled most of Goessel’s scoring as well in the defensive tête a tête. Both teams turned on the offense in the 4th stanza, however, with Goessel emerging victorious 12-8 to emerge with the 26-14 win. The Bluebirds showed outstanding from the free throw stripe in the 4th quarter, hitting 6 of 8 attempts to put away the contest. Stephany Meyer hit 17 to individually outscore the entire Eagle team.
To start, Goessel bounced nicely to Liz Alderfer, but she could not close. Rachael Boese notched a great block on D. After one quarter, the score stood at 2-4. Goessel’s lone FG came on a muscle/hustle move in the paint from Meyer at 2:47 and Elyria’s Adamyk put up the lone FG for the visitors.
At 5:45 Madison Smith put up a long 3 to knot at 4 and moments later Liz Schmucker fed a beauty inside to Meyer for two more, as the lead changed for the third and final time. Meyer forayed coast to coast for two, was fouled but could not drain the charity. 8-4. The Bluebirds were plagued with turnovers on bad choices, footwork, and other miscues. On defense, Goessel showed good hands and rebounding. With 35 ticks, solid shooter Rebecca Sawyer set and delivered from 10 feet and the half ended 10-4.
Goessel stayed in a prevent zone nearly the entire night, mixing in some ¾ and ½ court trap sets. The defense shut down the paint and prevented the Eagles from getting to the bucket as well as took advantage of what appeared to be limited outside Eagle range. Meyer intercepted a passing lane at speed and skated the length of the court for a highlight finish at 5:39 then did exactly the same thing two minutes later playing defense at the front of Goessel’s pressure zone. Anderson scored only the 2nd FG of the game with 2:25 left; Goessel had kept the Eagles off the scoreboard for a full 10 minutes. 14-6. Meyer added icing to the cake with a firm rejection to close the 3rd quarter.
Both teams emerged from their pitching duel in the 4th quarter to entertain the fans. Meyer bounced back up on the rebound, was fouled and hit the back end FT. Back down the floor the next time, she hit Alderfer over the top for a nifty finish underneath. Goessel showed good ball movement, freeing up their post several times. Porclein Unruh showed great hustle underneath on the boards, was fouled and hit one, then the Eagles sallied forth from the nest with two big buckets and the visiting fans awakened, 18-11. Down the floor, though, at 4:25 Meyer moved laterally and pirouetted in a pretty baby hook, scored again inside on a near perfect inbound play, buried two straight charities and caused Elyria to call time at 2:42. 24-12. Megan Guerrero went to the line and used the late night ATM to bank in two to lead 26-12. In a slow motion roly poly under the Bluebird bucket involving almost everyone on the floor, no one was injured. Elyria finished with two charities to close the contest 26-14.
Stephany Meyer led all scorers with 17, individually greater than the sum of all the Eagle scoring. Four Bluebirds put up 2, including Smith, Guerrero, Sawyer, and Alderfer. Unruh added one to round out the Goessel scoring.
-Karl Brubaker
