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Higbee teams travel to Kansas City to defeat Grundy County

Lady Tigers victorious 66-28

Posted 1/4/22

The scene was set on Wednesday with the Hy-Vee Arena in Kansas City as the backdrop as the Higbee Lady Tigers defeated the Grundy County Lady Panthers 66-28.

Playing where such former greats as …

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Higbee teams travel to Kansas City to defeat Grundy County

Lady Tigers victorious 66-28

Posted

The scene was set on Wednesday with the Hy-Vee Arena in Kansas City as the backdrop as the Higbee Lady Tigers defeated the Grundy County Lady Panthers 66-28.

Playing where such former greats as Nate “Tiny” Archibald and Julius “Dr. J” Erving provided NBA heroics in the ’70,s and where the Big 8 and Big 12 conferences held yearly tournaments, the former Kemper Arena might seem somewhat daunting to those of us that lived during those eras. If it fazed the Higbee girls, they made sure no one was aware as they established dominance over the Lady Panthers early on and never looked back.

With the success of the high-flying 10-0 Higbee boys team, the Higbee girls team has quietly flown under the radar in working its way to an 8-2 record. Led by freshman Ronnie Welch’s 19.3 points per game, the Lady Tigers have averaged 54.7 points per contest while holding their opponents to 33.5. The only blemishes on the Tiger record came at the hands of No.1-ranked  Meadville and the 8-2 Tina-Avalon Lady Dragons.

Wednesday’s game against Grundy County, which co-ops with Newtown-Harris, was a prime example of the balance of the Lady Tigers. Grundy County’s roster shows eight players, but for this game, the Lady Panthers only dressed out six.

 Higbee freshman Marilynn Ritter led the way her team as she put up 18 points. The Lady Tigers jumped out to a 24-8 lead at the end of the first quarter.

“Marilynn continues to grow and become more consistent at the varsity level,” said Higbee head coach Tanner Burton. “It was great to see her shots fall. She has shown solid growth this year.”

Higbee continued to pour it on as the outmanned Lady Panthers struggled to muster any type of offense, allowing Higbee to take a 39-14 lead into the locker room at halftime. 

Higbee added another 14 points in the third while Grundy County added eight. In the final stanza, the Lady Tiger put 13 on the board while the Lady Panthers added only six, making the final score 66-28 in favor of the girls from Higbee.

In addition to Ritter’s 18 points, fellow freshman Welch put up 15 points, and, just for good measure, garnered another double-double by earning 11 steals on the day. “The best part about Ronnie’s game is that she is adapting to the varsity level and improving,” said Burton. “She has started getting more deflections which allows us to get more steals off tips and loose balls she causes.”

 Sophomores Kylleen Gibson and Isabelle Welch each put in eight points as classmate Alie Mitchell added six. Senior Macey Whisenand came off the bench to score four and junior Madison Ferguson put in three. Juniors Hailey Derboven and Emma Johnson each provided two to round out the scoring for the Lady Tigers.

Johnson and Mitchell each pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Lady Tigers.

The Lady Tigers traveled to Breckenridge Tuesday for a game that was contested after The Advertiser went to press. On Thursday they travel to Southwest to take on the Lady Wildcats.

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