Jr Lady Panthers Win NPL Tourney

Pike Valley JH girls vs. St. John's league championship. The two teams faced off twice during the regular season with St. johns winning in Beloit by 3 and then pike valley won in Courtland by 17. So todays game was on a neutral site in Mankato. After the first quarter Pike Valley led 6-5. But at halftime St. John's led 16-11. The third quarter the Lady panthers out scored St. johns 11-5 them a 21-20 lead going into the 4th. The 4th quarter went back and forth and found St. John's up three with less than a minute to go, when Brailyn Carlgren stole the ball went in for a layup and got fouled and made the freethrow to tie the game up with under 30 seconds to go. St. Johns got fouled with 16 seconds left and made both freethrows to take the lead. The panthers quickly brought the ball up the court and Tiana Sothers made the game tying basket with five seconds left. St. johns missed the final shot and the game heade into overtime. In overtime the Lady panthers took a three point lead on a bucket from rileigh gardner who made the bucket and was fouled and she made her freethrow. Rileigh made one more freethrow later to give the lady panthers a 33-29 win in overtime. Rileigh Gardner 11 points, Tiana Sothers 7, Karisma Vignery 6 Brailyn Carlgren 5, Tristan Burnham 2, and Taylor Gardner with 2. On a side note, St. John's started five 8th graders, we start two 8th graders, one 7th grader and two 6th graders (Karisma and Brailyn and then Taylor Gardner comes off the bench, she is a 6th grader too) Our future looks good. The Boys lost in the championship game 51-38. They were down at halftime32-15 but came out strong in the third and got it back to seven at the start of the 4th trailing 43-36, but just couldn't close the gap. Same thing her we start two 8th graders and 3 7th grade boys. Peters 12, Runft 11, White 9, Strickler 5, Hammer 4, Kussman 2