by The Lutheran West Longhorns hosted the Harvey Red Raiders in a Wednesday night showdown.
The action got going right off the rip when the Longhorns won the jump ball and senior Maddie Kandrach laid the ball in to score within the first 5 seconds of gametime. Following the initial bucket, both defenses played tough and forced turnovers and missed shots possession after possession. After a timeout with about 5:30 left in the first, the Longhorns came out and got back-to-back buckets from senior Aliciana Medina. From there on, it was all Lutheran West the rest of the quarter as they got out to a 15-0 lead over Harvey.
In the second quarter, it was Harvey that struck first when Dionjanae Crawford found fellow senior Jayla Holloway for the team’s first score. After a couple back and forth stops defensively, it was Harvey senior guard Haleigh Lewis taking it to the rim for a tough lay in to get the offense going. After a steal by Crawford, it was Lewis finding Holloway this time for two points down low the shorten the deficit. After a couple made free throws from the Longhorns, Crawford hits a running layup as halftime approached, and made the score going into the break 19-9.
After outscoring the Longhorns 9-4 in the prior quarter, the Red Raiders started off the third right where they left off. Senior Abrielle Taylor started the scoring with a put back off of the offensive rebound, followed up by Haleigh Lewis laying in a two of her own. Medina answered for the Longhorns hitting an under the basket lay up at a difficult angle to get Lutheran West on the board. Center Khloe Gill checked in and added instant offense, giving the Longhorns a quick bucket. With the deficit cut to 8, the Longhorns knew they had to answer back and they did.
They went on a 22-6 run extending into the fourth quarter, led by seniors Ella Heisner and Maddie Kandrach. Heisner had 3 big three pointers in the second half to spark the offense. Kandrach had 12 second half points. The duo combined for all the Longhorns fourth quarter scoring, accounting for 16 total points with 9 from Kandrach, and 7 from Heisner. In the end, the Longhorns offense prevailed and helped them defeat Harvey by a final score of 51-27.
Player of the game:
Maddie Kandrach, Lutheran West (18 points)
