Lady Jays Basketball
Lady Jays Head to Holiday Break with a Win
Saturday, December 19 was the final game the Lady Jays will play before the holiday moratorium, and they came away with a 40-34 win over the Bancroft-Rosalie/Lyons Decatur (BRLD) Wolverines. This game was a makeup game from a COVID postponement earlier in the season.
To begin the first quarter, the Lady Jays trailed the Wolverines 12-9. The second quarter proved more successful for the Lady Jays, as they added 14 more points to the scoreboard, while BRLD only added nine, pushing the score to 23-19 in favor of the Lady Jays.
The third quarter was also successful for the Lady Jays, as they were able to outscore the Lady Wolverines 9-6, pushing the lead to 32-25. In the final quarter of the game, the Lady Jays put up eight additional points, and the final score was 40-34 with the win for the Lady Jays.
Head Coach Darren Sindelar stated, “Offensively, we had some shots fall early in the game. This definitely helps the confidence. Defensively, we play good team defense. We were able to control their post in the middle. We played one of our best games of the year.”
Leading the way in scoring for the Lady Jays was sophomore Morgan Moeller with 12 and senior Kenzie Moeller with 10. Rounding out the scoring for the Lady Jays were Alexus Sindelar with seven, Faith Lubischer with five, and Gina Wragge and Payten Simmons both posted three.
Sophomore Morgan Moeller commented on the game saying, “We definitely came out better defensively and stopped the drive. We knew that they were a good team, and we were going to have to play smart and stop them defensively so that could push over into the offensive end of things.”
M. Moeller also led the team in rebounds with seven, followed by Gina Wragge with five.
Lubischer and K. Moeller had three steals each.
The Lady Jays are back in action on December 28 when they play in the Northeast Nebraska Shootout versus Laurel Concord Coleridge at 11:00 a.m. at Wayne High School.
Lady Jays Fall Against the Shamrocks
by Taylor Compton
The Pierce varsity Lady Jays took on the Scotus Central Catholic Shamrocks on Friday, December 18, on the Shamrock court where the Shamrocks took the win as the ending score was 52-31.
Head coach Darren Sindelar states, “Friday night was one of those nights where we had good looks at the basket, but the shots would not fall. Once we got behind, I think we started to force things and never could really get on track. If our outside shots aren't falling early, we have to find other ways to get the ball to the rim.”
Starting the game, the Lady Jays didn’t score as the ending score of the first quarter was 10-0 in favor of the Lady Shamrocks.
In the second quarter, Faith Lubischer scored one free throw, Gina Wragge made two free throws, and Abigail Meier also had two free throws. Payten Simmons and Morgan Moeller each made a basket, and Alexus Sindelar scored a 3-pointer. The Lady Jays ended the first half trailing Scotus 28-12.
After halftime, Lubischer scored two buckets and one 3-pointer. Kenzie Moeller also made a 3-pointer. The end of the third quarter again had the Lady Jays trailing Scotus 41-22.
In the final quarter, Wragge scored one free throw, and both Callie Arnold and Meier made two free throws. K. Moeller and Simmons each made a basket, which concluded the game 52-31, with the Shamrocks winning the game.
Senior Faith Lubischer comments, “We weren’t able to execute on offense in the first half so it made it difficult to stay in the game. The defense was a bit slow, it just wasn’t our best game.”
M. Moeller had the most assists with two, and K. Moeller, Wragge, and Meier each had one assist. Meier had the most rebounds with a total of nine. Simmons had six rebounds, M. Moeller had five, and both Wragge and Lubischer had two rebounds each. Reagan Theisen and K. Moeller had one rebound each.
After time off for the holiday moratorium, the Lady Jays next game will the holiday tournament at Wayne on Monday, December 28.
Lady Jays Take on O’Neill
by Taylor Compton
The Pierce varsity Lady Jays took on the O’Neill Eagles on Tuesday, December 15, but couldn’t keep up with the Eagles as the ending score of the game was 48-39 in favor of the Lady Eagles.
Senior Kenzie Moeller states, “I thought, on the defensive end, we played pretty well. We still need to work on being consistent and playing 32 minutes as hard as we can. We still have a lot of season left, which means more time to get better.”
To tip off the game, Payten Simmons was the first Lady Jay to put points on the scoreboard as she shot a basket. Abigail Meier also shot a basket, and Gina Wragge made a free throw shot. Simmons then made another basket to end the quarter. The Lady Jays were just behind the Eagles 7-8.
Dribbling into the second quarter, Faith Lubischer put two more points to the score as that concluded the first half of the game with a score of 9-19.
After halftime, Kenzie Moeller added two more baskets to the Lady Jays scoreboard. Morgan Moeller made two free throw shots and also a basket. Meier had made two free throw shots, and Alexus Sindelar shot one free throw. Lubischer then shot a basket to end the quarter 22-34.
Shooting into the final quarter, M. Moeller made three free throw shots as well as two 3-pointers and a basket. Wragge shot a 3-pointer and two free throws. K. Moeller added one final free throw shot to end the game with a score 39-48.
Meier had the most rebounds with a total of six. Just behind her was K. Moeller and M. Moeller with four each. Lubischer, Wragge, and Simmons each had two, and Sindelar had one rebound. K. Moeller and Meier had the most assists as both of them had three. Sindelar was just behind them with 2 assists, and Simmons and Luischer each had one assist.
Head coach Darren Sindelar commented on the game by saying, “We started too slow on the offensive end in the first half. We did better at attacking the basket and getting to the line in the second half. Defensively, we need to do a better job rebounding. Many of their baskets came on 2nd and 3rd opportunities.”
The Lady Jays next game will be the holiday tournament at Wayne on December 28.
