A 10 to 0 first period margin helped the Alliance St. Agnes girl’s basketball team in a contest on Tuesday against Gordon/Rushville. The Crusaders built a double digit lead and cruised to a 29 to 7 win over the Mustangs in a ball game played in Rushville. With the victory, St. Agnes improves to 2 and 0 on the year.
Defense also contributed in getting the W as the Lady Crusaders shut out the hosts in both the first and fourth quarters. Leading the way in scoring was eighth grader Reese Armstrong who finished the night with 19 points. Gordon/Rushville did win the opener in the JV matchup. The Mustangs downed SA 39 to 9. With the loss, Alliance drops to 1 and 1 on the JV season. Penn Vergil led the Crusaders with 7 points.
Period #1 in the varsity game had the Lady Crusaders get off to a great start. Sparked by 4 points by Armstrong, St. Agnes was off to the races. Baskets by fellow Crusaders Aubree Shrewsbury, Maslin Breen, and Kale Hulquist propelled Alliance to 10 points lead after one quarter of action. In the second, Gordon tallied one bucket but 9 more points by Armstrong kept SA out in front. Armstrong would score all of Alliance’s points in the 6 minute session with 3 hoops and 3 free throws. Heading to half, St. Agnes enjoyed a 19 to 2 advantage.
Play was even in the third. The host Mustangs scored 5 points on a 2 pointer and a three but SA answered back with 6 points of their own to increase their lead. Two more 2 pointers by Armstrong plus another tally by Shrewsbury helped the Crusaders maintain their margin. After three periods of action, SA led 25 to 7. St. Agnes’s defense continued their fine play in the final quarter as the Crusaders shut out the Mustangs. Meanwhile, buckets by Shrewsbury and Armstrong denied the home team any chance of a comeback. Final Alliance 29 Gordon/Rushville 7
SA 10 9 6 4 29
GR 0 2 5 0 7
Scoring Armstrong 19 Shrewsbury 6 Hulquist 2 Breen 2
In the opener, it was the hosts jumping out to a strong beginning. Gordon grabbed an early lead at 7 to 2. A Vergil score would account for the lone Alliance points as the Mustangs snatched the early momentum. The second period was key in the game as the Mustangs put 10 points in the scorebook while St. Agnes was shut out. After 2 quarters of play, St. Agnes saw its deficit stand at 17 to 2. The Mustangs’ fine play continued in the third. Gordon scored 7 two point hoops in the period to increase their margin. Meanwhile another hoop by Vergil was all the Crusader offense could muster. The hosts took a 31 to 4 lead with one more period to play. In the finale, GR tallied 8 more points to put the game away. Three more Vergil points plus a score from Quinn Robertson helped Alliance tally their most points in a quarter but it wasn’t enough. Final Gordon/Rushville 39 Alliance 9
SA 2 0 2 5 9
GR 7 10 14 8 39
Points Vergil 7 Robertson 2
Alliance will play at home vs Crawford on Thursday, November 21 then travel to Hyannis on Saturday, November 23. The Crusaders end their busy week then with a road game at Hay Springs on Monday, November 25.