Panhandle Conference rivals Crawford and Alliance St. Agnes Academy clashed Tuesday in junior high girl’s basketball action in a contest played in Alliance. The visiting Rams used a big third period and defeated the Lady Crusaders 36 to 20. With the loss, the Academy drops to 2 and 1 on the year. Crawford outscored Alliance by 15, 17 to 2, in the third and went on for the victory. Top scorer for SA was Reese Armstrong who tallied 10 points. In the night cap, three late free throws by Crusader Penn Vergil helped the Alliance JV squad gain a 9 to 6 win. The Academy Junior Varsity team also has a 2 and 1 record for the season.
Crawford snagged the early momentum from the start. The Rams outscored the Crusaders 8 to 4 after one period of play. An early hoop by Alliance’s Quinn Robertson gave the Academy hope in the opening minutes but Crawford’s full court pressure defense made things tough for the hosts. Armstrong also had a bucket in the first as the Lady Crusaders kept in the striking distance. In quarter #2, play remained tight. The visitors would score 9 points in the period while SA tossed in 8. Alliance would get 4 points by Armstrong and hoops by Aubree Shrewsbury and Maslin Breen to stay close. At half, St. Agnes trailed 17 to 12.
In the third, the guests pulled away. Crawford’s pressure defense was too much as the Rams caused many turnovers that led to easy baskets. Overall, Crawford would score 17 points in the quarter and build a big margin. Two free throws by Breen accounted for the long St. Agnes’ points. After three periods of play, the Rams were up 34 to 14. The Crusaders offense was better in the fourth but their deficit was too much to overcome. Two hoops by Armstrong and a two pointer by Breen helped the hosts outscore the Rams by 4 at 6 to 2 in the period. Final Crawford 36 Alliance 20
CRAW 8 9 17 2 36
ALL 4 8 2 6 20
Scoring Armstrong 10 Breen 6 Robertson 2 Shrewsbury 2
Points were hard to come by in the junior varsity match up. Both teams could muster just 2 points apiece in the opener period. Vergil accounted for the lone basket and the game went to the second with the score knotted at 2 all. Crawford’s defense continued to be stout in the second as the Crusaders would fail to score. After 2 quarters of action, the Rams led 4 to 2. Two point baskets by Alliance’s Alexis Shelmadine and Kale Hulquist in period #3 gave the Lady Crusaders a chance. Meanwhile, the Rams were held to just one bucket and the game went to the fourth with the score tied at 6. No hoops were scored in the final 6 minutes of play but an early free throw by Vergil gave the hosts a lead at 7 to 6. In the final seconds, Vergil was fouled and coolly went to the line and sank 2 from the charity stripe to give SA the win 9 to 6.
CRAW 2 2 2 0 6
ALL 2 0 4 3 9
Scoring Vergil 5 Hulquist 2 Shelmadine 2
St. Agnes hits the road for their next games with contests Saturday at Hyannis and Monday at Hay Springs.