By Staff

            NEWTON – On Monday, the McPherson Middle School seventh and eighth grade girls basketball teams traveled to Newton to battle with Newton Chisholm Middle School and returned home with three wins and one loss.

            For the eighth-grade Junior Lady Pups, the won their ‘A’ game 40-12 before losing the ‘B’ game 13-4 in a shortened game while the seventh-grade Junior Lady Pups swept their games with Newton, winning 42-8 and 27-14.

            7th GRADE JUNIOR LADY PUPS:

            Now 3-0 on the season the seventh grade ‘A’ team hammered Newton with a 34-point, 42-8 win led by Audra Sandbo and Kennedy Bonham with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Sandbo recorded a double-double by also getting 10 steals while still pulling down six rebounds and dishing out five assists. Both Bonham and Amarie Lowery helped out in the paint with five rebounds each. Lowery and Jersey Alexander each picked up five steals with Lowery also chipping in with eight points and Alexander had four while both Karlie Cooper and Allison Randa scored two.

            “We had a solid defensive effort again,” noted seventh-grade head coach Matt Sandbo. “The girls did a really nice job getting to lose balls and pitching the ball ahead to open teammates.”

            For the seventh grade ‘B’ team, they moved their season mark to 3-2 with a 27-14 win over Newton as Allison Randa led the team in scoring with 14 points. Jaylinn Major contributed six, Rut Diaz had three and both Eliza Jex and Haleigh Kirkbride had two.

            Coach Sandbo concluded his post-game reflections by adding, “Nice effort from the girls on the ‘B’ team. They are getting better at some things and continue to work hard overall.”

            8th GRADE JUNIOR LADY PUPS:

            For the eighth-grade Junior Lady Pups, the ‘A’ team blasted Newton 40-12 while the ‘B’ team played just a two-quarter game and lost 13-4.

            Jaela Thompson led the ‘A’ team offensive attack with 16 points while Rylie Whitfield scored eight, Piper Alvord chipped in with seven, Brynn Littlejohn had five, and both Carmin Pavlovich and Molly Owen scored two.

            “This was a fun game to be part of,” explained eighth-grade head coach Heidi Ricke. “It was our first game where everything just came together and clicked. Very proud of these girls.”

            Playing just two quarters in the ‘B’ game, McPherson lost 13-4 as Rylee Holt scored three points and MacKayle Woltje had one.

(The Staff covering McPherson County Activities can be reached by email at crossdovewriter@gmail.com)