White Pigeon’s girls basketball team is happy just to be moving on after a 26-20 Class C district-opening win against Constantine.
Monday’s contest at Lawton got off to a very slow start, with the Falcons holding a 4-0 lead over White Pigeon after the first quarter. They extended the advantage to 7-4 by halftime.
The Chiefs then got things rolling with back-to-back 11-point quarters to improve to 11-8 this season and set up a semifinal game against Decatur Wednesday.
“We won and I have more gray hair,” White Pigeon coach Jeff Baechler said. “We woke up in the second half and got it done.”
File photo by John Gentry
Haley Miller and Sydney Harmon scored seven apiece for the Chiefs, followed by Rachel Brock (six) and Bethany Hagner (six). Miller secured a team-high 10 rebounds, Skyler DeMeyer had six and Harmon added five. DeMeyer also swiped eight steals and registered three assists. Hagner and Miller also notched three assists.
Decatur is 16-4 this year and had a first-round bye.
Alissa Evilsizor had six points to lead Constantine, which finished the season 2-19. Michelle Smith and Ashley Loose both had four, while Dylan King, DeShea Payton and Kerrigan Harris finished with two. Payton and Loose recorded eight and seven rebounds, respectively, and Smith posted two assists and three steals.
“The game plan we put in place was based on man-to-man pressure defense,” Constantine coach Joe Stacey said. “We felt if we could cause some turnovers and contest every shot we could keep the game close and hopefully have an opportunity at the end to win it. We executed the game plan almost to perfection, but almost doesn’t win playoff games. Down the stretch Coach Baechler did a great job of setting up the plays that his girls executed to get the buckets they needed to keep us at bay.”