LONE TREE

Last season, the Winfield-Mt Union Lady Wolves went undefeated in conference play, but the Lady Lions made sure this year told a different story.

In their home opener Lone Tree defeated WMU in an early season Southeast Iowa Super Conference matchup, 67-26, on Nov. 21. This was Lone Tree’s first win over the Lady Wolves since 2019.

“It’s nice to get a win against a team we have struggled with the last few years,” Lone Tree coach Ryan Shelman said. 

With this blowout victory Lone Tree improves its season record to 3-0 and its conference record to 1-0. For WMU this loss drops its record to 2-1 for the season and 0-1 in conference play.

Lone Tree opened the first quarter with a 6-1 run, and this was an early game lead they never let go of. 

Scoring 20 points in the second quarter and holding WMU to four points, the Lady Lions went into halftime with a 23-point advantage. With WMU reeling, Lone Tree delivered the knockout punch in the third quarter.

Coming out of halftime Finley Jacque, Lone Tree’s leading scorer last year as a freshman, went on a solo nine-point run, connecting on three shots from three-point range. 

“Finley is a phenomenal shooter and continues to improve, she is very coachable and works on her game,” coach Shelman said.  

“In the stretch we got into one of our sets and were able to give her a good look, then she started to feel it and used that moment to shoot in two more.” 

A versatile scorer, 12 of Jacque’s team high 24 points came in the fourth quarter. 

With the game well in hand, Lone Tree started to sub its starters with about one minute left in the third quarter. The final frame ended up being the only quarter WMU outscored Lone Tree. 

Accounting for 19 of the 26 points WMU scored was sophomore Madisen Kellogg. Nearly recording a double double, Kellogg led the Lady Wolves with nine rebounds. 

While Lone Tree scored its season high against WMU, it was their defensive effort that led them to victory.

Thanks to Lone Tree’s aggressive style of defense, the Lady Wolves committed 38 turnovers as a team. 

“We were able to dial up a lot of ball pressure and that led to our success on the defense end,” coach Shelman said of Lone Tree’s defense. 

Lone Tree had six players record three or more steals, tallying 26 steals in total. Junior Rylee Shield led the team with six takeaways. On offense Shield was Lone Tree’s second highest scorer, contributing 11 points in the win. 

“Good defense starts with ball pressure,” coach Shelman said. “Vivian Zaruba and Ava Christofferson did a great job with that.  Our girls also did a nice job on the defensive glass and finished out a lot of our possessions with rebounds and limited Winfield’s second chance opportunities.” 

Aside from the final frame, where many of the Lone Tree starters were subbed out at that point, the Lady Wolves failed to score double digit points in a single quarter. 

As a team Lone Tree collected 49 rebounds with 24 being offensive boards. Leading the team in this category was sophomore Alyson Ford. Ford had a team high nine rebounds to go along with seven points, three blocks, and three steals. 

Leading the team in assists was junior Vivian Zaruba. Zaruba, who led Lone Tree in assists last season, ended the night with five points, three steals, and four assists.  

Playing in another home conference game Lone Tree battled against the Columbus Wildcats (1-0) on Nov. 28. Up next for the Lady Lions (3-0) will be a road conference matchup against Highland (2-0) on Dec. 1.