Lady Bulldogs drop district heartbreaker
By BARRY HALVORSON bhalvorson@journal-spectator.com

Staff photo by Barry Halvorson Demonstrating the game within the game, Boling Lady Bulldog Head Coach Cynthia Clark draws up a play for her squad during a time out. The team scored off the play but still fell to Van Vleck in a 60-55 heartbreaker Friday night at the Boling Gym.

BOLING - The fifth and final lead change of the night proved heartbreaking for the Boling Lady Bulldogs as they dropped a 60-55 decision to visiting Van Vleck in a District 27-2A contest Friday night.

With the loss, Boling is 1-3 in district play and 4-10 overall heading into the Christmas holiday. The team will be in action at the Woodsboro Tournament Dec. 27-30 before traveling to East Bernard for a district game on Jan. 4. Van Vleck's record is now 4-0 in district and 9-7 on the year.

With only six available players, Coach Cynthia Clark's squad just ran out of gas at the end as they were held scoreless for the final 3 minutes of the game. Van Vleck would take the lead with a hoop by Andrea Floyd with 2:37 left in the contest. The Lady Leps would add two more scores down the stretch to ice the win.

"Our point guard (Ebony Ashley) was having trouble breathing and forgot her inhaler so I kept having to pull her out," Clark said.

"And our offense just doesn't run the same without her in there. And (Floyd) did a good job for them. I was really disappointed in our defense at times because they got a lot of easy layups that we should have been back and prevented. But we just ran out of gas."

The fourth quarter stumble offset an impressive first half rally by the Lady Bulldogs. Getting off to a slow start, Boling trailed 14-3 four minutes into the game. Led by Ashley and Kierra Jackson, the home team cut the lead to one, 14-13, by the end of the quarter.

Hitting free throws and getting the ball inside to Jackson and Stephanie Rachunek, Boling overtook Van Vleck in the second quarter and led 35-31 at the half.

The quarter was highlighted by some solid team play by the Lady Dogs with Ashley, Jessica Moore and Ash Lunford consistently getting feeds to the inside duo of Jackson and Rachunek.

The second half stayed tight all the way with the third quarter featuring two ties and two lead changes with no team going up by more than eight points. The fourth quarter maintain that competitive pace with three lead changes and the largest lead being five points.

Jackson finished with 18 points as Clark had her team feeding the post.

"She had the hot hand, particularly down the stretch," the coach said. "I wanted the ball in her hands with the rest of the team crashing the boards."

Rachunek finished with 15 on the night while Ashley added 13. Jane Arraign finished with five; Moore, three; and Lunford, two.

Floyd led all scorers with 22 for the Lady Leps while Joanne Griffin finished with 14 and Brasher Bee scoring 10.

The Lady Bulldogs were also able to get in a rare JV game, the first in three weeks, fielding a subvarsity squad of only six as well. The young Lady Dogs dropped a 33-27 decision as a fourth quarter rally that cut a Van Vleck Lead of 23-16 going into the final frame down to two before falling short. Beth Llanes led the team with 10 points wile Paige Bucek had 9 and Kayla Montgomery finished with eight, including hitting a pair of treys.

"The numbers are hurting us not only in games but also trying to have competitive practices," Clark said. "When we can, we try to scrimmage against some of the boys to try and sharpen things up. I'm looking forward to the Woodsboro tourney. It's mostly 2A and private schools and I'll be looking to pick up some wins to boost our confidence for the rest of the district schedule."