Louisa Muscatine pulls out tight 51-48 victory over Lone Tree

By Giovanni Coronel
Posted 12/20/22

The score was neck and neck throughout this highly contested basketball game, but Louisa Muscatine was able to pull away from Lone Tree in the second half of  a 51-48 win on December 13. 

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Louisa Muscatine pulls out tight 51-48 victory over Lone Tree

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The score was neck and neck throughout this highly contested basketball game, but Louisa Muscatine was able to pull away from Lone Tree in the second half of  a 51-48 win on December 13. 

In a game that saw eight lead changes in the first two quarters and a victory margin of just three points it was no surprise the energy in the fourth quarter escalated into a fever pitch. 

Lone Tree went into half time trailing Louisa Muscatine 24-21 and while the Lions were outscored by the Falcons in the second half, it was by the slim margin of 27-26. 

“Honestly it’s one that isn’t much fun when it gets away from you,” Lone Tree head coach Ryan Shelman said about the hard-fought game. “We just got to tighten some things up. We got to get better. We just got to make sure we focus on ourselves every day at practice and try to keep moving forward.” 

Both teams scored their quarter high in the final frame of the game. The Lions scored 20 points in the fourth, but the Falcons almost matched them, scoring 18 points of their own. 

Speaking of the number 20 that was how many points Lone Tree freshman Finley Jacque accounted for, leading the team in the scoring department. She went 3-for-6 on three-pointers. 

One of those threes came early in the fourth quarter, cutting the Falcons lead to five points. The freshman forward also grabbed three offensive rebounds and managed to steal the ball twice.  

“Finley Jacque had a good game as a freshman. She had 20 points for us tonight,” Shelman said. “Riley Krueger hit a couple good threes for us. I thought Maddi Floyd did a good job of stepping into a role tonight, getting rebounds, just playing good defense, and doing some nice things for us. We’re proud of our effort. We just kind of fell a little short tonight.”

Krueger, the Lone Tree senior guard, was the second leading scorer for the Lions with 12 points. Her points came from being able to cash in three free throws and sink in three 3-pointers. 

When time was almost up in the final frame Lone Tree almost erased its deficit to Louisa Muscatine, trailing 48-46, courtesy of Krueger’s last made three-point shot of the night. She was also able to grab five rebounds, three of them being offensive boards. 

The Lions committed 28 turnovers as a team and Shelman wants to make cleaning up those costly mistakes a point of emphasis going forward.

“We’ve got to do a better job of taking care of the basketball. We had too many unforced errors tonight with the basketball, just a little loose with it. We need to do a better job defensively boxing out. We’re at our best when we’re forcing turnovers and playing in transition, letting our defense jumpstart our offense. We’re still learning, still trying to get better and that being we got to keep working on us, get better before our next game on Friday,” Shelman said.   

 

Lone Tree 40, Pekin 22

Bouncing back from its loss the Lady Lions took a commanding victory over the Panthers, 40-22, on December 16.  

Leading 17-10 at halftime Lone Tree held Pekin scoreless in the third quarter and went into the fourth quarter leading by 18 points. 

Lone Tree sophomore Vivian Zaruba was the leading scorer with 15 points. Putting in the effort to make sure her team had second chances at the rim she was able to secure eight offensive rebounds. On defense she managed to snatch the ball eight times, leading the team in steals. 

Not too far behind Zaruba the second leading scorer for Lone Tree was freshman Finley Jacque, with 10 points. Jacque’s shot 5-for-9, giving her a field goal percentage of 55.6%, leading her team in efficiency on the night. 

Next on the docket for Lone Tree (6-4) is staying home to challenge the visiting conference opponent WACO (5-2) on December 20. After a brief break in action for the holidays the Lions will be on the road to face Wapello (2-4) on January 3.