The Langford Area girls basketball team gave fans at its season opener a little extra for their money with a 49-46 overtime victory over Leola-Frederick on Saturday afternoon.
Coach Michael Alberts’ club was back in action at Estelline last night Tuesday and hosts Ipswich on Friday.
“We were ready for our first game to get a starting point to our season and to see where we are at as a team,” said Alberts. “I thought our girls played a good game, did a good job at making adjustments on the fly, and did things well that we haven’t been able to practice yet. We were also able to get up and down a little bit, along with taking care of the ball once we got settled in.”
The Lady Lions led 15-13 after one period but trailed 25-22 at halftime. The Titans extended that lead to 27-22 to open the third period but Clarissa Guy hit a fielder, Eliana Darling put a rebound back up for two, and Autumn Wegleitner was fouled on a rebound and converted the three-point play for a 29-27 lead after three.
There were eight lead changes in a hectic fourth quarter. L-F led 37-36 with 1:31 left, but Lizzie Gustafson sunk two free tosses for a 38-37 LA lead with 50 seconds remaining. The visitors tied the game at 38-all with 31 seconds to play to force overtime.
L-F took charge early in the extra period with a 5-1 run and led 43-39 with 2:55 left. Darling led the Lady Lions back with six straight points in the paint and Alex Darling hit two free throws for a 47-43 lead with just 21 seconds remaining, but the Titans kept things interesting with a three-pointers 11 seconds later. Alex Darling put LA back up 49-46 by swishing two free tosses with five seconds left before L-F bounced a shot off the rim at the buzzer that would have forced a second extra period.
Paytyn Marlow led a balanced LA scoring effort with 13 points, and Alex and Eliana Darling each had 10.
Alberts said the focus of his squad this week is to just keep showing improvement.
“We need to get better at our rebounding and get in better sync with each other on the offensive end,” concluded Alberts.
LEOLA-FREDERICK: Kaitlyn Mueller 3 2-4 11, Jillian Ellwein 7 3-6 19, Parker Hoffman 1 0-0 3, Arabella Clark 3 3-6 10, Sam Geffre 1 1-3 3. Totals 15 9-19 46.
LANGFORD AREA: Clarissa Guy 3 1-1 7, Paytyn Marlow 5 1-10 13, Lizzie Gustafson 2 2-4 6, Alex Darling 2 4-4 10, Eliana Darling 5 0-0 10, Autumn Wegleitner 1 1-1 3. Totals 18 9-20 49.
LF (0-1) 13 25 27 38 46 (OT)
LA (1-0) 15 22 29 38 49
3-point goals – Mueller 3, Ellwein 2, Hoffman, Clark; Marlow 2, A. Darling 2. Fouled Out – Clark; Guy. Total fouls- LF 19; LA 18.
