By William / www.mcpherson-county-ks.com

WAKEFIELD = After trailing for much of the game, the Elyria Christian girls rallied in the final eight minutes to score a three-point, 44-41 road win at Wakefield on Tuesday.

“We felt good to come away with a win tonight,” noted Lady Eagle head coach Greg Fields. “It is always difficult to make the long road trip to Wakefield and stay focused for the game. We did not do a great job through most of the first half with execution on offense and we had several missed assignments on defense. I appreciated the effort our girls gave into the fourth quarter.”

The Lady Eagles trailed by two points, 12-10, at the end of the first quarter and still found themselves down by one, 19-18, when they broke for halftime. Falling behind by four by the end of the third quarter, Elyria’s offense put 15 points on the board in the final eight minutes while the defense held the hosts to just eight, giving the Lady Eagles the opportunity to come from behind and earn the hard fought three-point road victory.

It was 16 steals made by the Elyria defense that helped change the outcome of the game as KiLynn Starburg swiped five and Julia Allen made four steals.

Once again, the scoring for the Lady Eagles was led by Ryland Hawkinson with 15 points while both Alexus Swenson and Kylee Penner also reached double digits with 10 points each.

Penner led the work in the paint with eight rebounds while Hawkinson and Allie Stone both pulled down five.

Coach Fields concluded his post-game reflections by saying, “Even though we were down by as many as nine points in the second quarter, I felt like the depth of our bench would eventually wear them down, and that proved to be the case. KiLynn (Starburg) and Allie (Stone) were really active defensively to keep them sped up, and those two accounted for many assists on offense. Ryland (Hawkinson) had another very solid offensive performance tonight. This was another complete team effort as our guards are doing a better job of protecting the ball and everyone stepped up in the fourth quarter to find a way to get the win.”

Now 9-4 for the season, the Lady Eagles will be back on the road on Friday when they play Goessel.

SCORING:                 1          2          3          4          FINAL

LADY EAGLES           10       8          11       15       44

Wakefield                 12       7          14       8          41      

TEAM STATS:

ELYRIA CHRISTIAN LADY EAGLES = FG 18/51 (35%); 3-PTR 5/23 (22%); FT 3/3 (100%); AST 12; REB 26; TO 17; STLS 16; BLK 1; PF 12.

Wakefield = FG 16/41 (39%); 3-PTR 3/6 (50%); FT 6/8 (75%); AST n/a; REB 21; TO 20; STLS 3; BLK 5; PF 9.

ELYRIA CHRISTIAN LADY EAGLES INDIVIDUAL SCORING &STAT LEADERS =

Scoring (44 total points) = Ryland Hawkinson – 15; Alexus Swenson – 10; Kylee Penner – 10; Allie Stone – 4; Olivia Clark – 3; KiLynn Starburg – 2.

3-Pointers Made (5) = Swenson, Penner – 2; Clark – 1.

Assists = Starburg – 5; Hawkinson – 4.

Rebounds = Penner – 8; Hawkinson, Stone – 5; Starburg – 4.

Steals = Starburg – 5; Julia Allen – 4; Stone – 3.

Blocked Shots = Starburg – 1.