MJH Girls Place 1st at NCAA League Basketball
by Dalen Rathbun
January 19, 2010
The Minneapolis Junior High Girls' Basketball team ended their basketball season by reaching the goal of not losing another game after losing to Lakewood Middle School of Salina. We played four games after the Christmas break but had the Kanopolis regular season game postponed because of weather conditions.
The first game after the break was against the SES Trojans at Gypsum. The long layoff was felt as we were rusty, but we responded well and came away with a 34 to 23 win. Mara Pounds and Katelin Steinbrock led the scoring with 8 points, Kynedi Allison scored 6 points, Jacee Owens and Lucy Giles each scored 5 points and Sydney Wedel scored 2 points to round out the scoring.
The Kanopolis game was postponed and there was no time to make up the game, so the next game was the first round of the NCAA Junior High Basketball Tournament. The first game was against Republic County at Minneapolis. We had a good performance and it was a good way to start the tournament as we won 33 to 6. We played good solid defense against an improved Republic County team. Having this game was very beneficial to us as it gave us another game to work on our defense and special plays.
Kynedi Allison and Mara Pounds led the scoring with 8 points, Jacee Owens scored 6 points, Katelin Steinbrock scored 4 points, Lucy Giles scored 3 points, Sydney Wedel and Sheyanne Smith rounded out the scoring with 2 points each.
We traveled to Ellsworth on Saturday, January 16, to play in the final round of the NCAA tournament against Sacred Heart at 9:00 a.m. Once again, we played good sound defense and scored some key baskets off the steals to go ahead and win the game 30 to 18. It was a good win as we beat Sacred Heart for third time. Mara Pounds and Kynedi Allison led the scoring with 9 points each, Jacee Owens scored 5 points, Lucy Giles scored 4 points, Katelin Steinbrock scored 2 points, and Sheyanne Smith scored 1 point.
The NCAA tournament final was against Kanopolis Middle School. We had not played them yet as the game was postponed due to weather, so this was the first encounter for either team. The game started out with both teams tied the first quarter. Katelin Steinbrock was very instrumental in keeping us in the game as she scored 14 of the 18 first half points as a result of pinpoint outside shooting. The second half defensive pressure really picked up and Kanopolis was only able to score 3 points in the third quarter while we scored 11 points to pull ahead. A 13 point fourth quarter helped put the game out of reach for Kanopolis, which enabled the Lions to win the NCAA Junior High League Tournament.
Coach Walker, Coach Darrow and Coach Rathbun would like to thank the Minneapolis parents and fans for all their support and encouragement all year. It was a fun and rewarding year, and we really enjoyed having the opportunity to coach a very good group of individuals on all three teams. We saw much improvement over the season which is a big reward for the coaches. Once again, thanks for all your effort and support.
