Lady Blue Devils sweep Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA – Fresh off of their win at the Marion McCulloch Invitational, the 8th grade girls' basketball team was on the road again this past Wednesday evening. Once again, the Lady Blue Devils would play the Alexandria Tigers whom they had beaten 42-16 just a few days earlier. Just as was the case in the first meeting between the two teams, Tipton stormed to an early lead and never looked back as they defeated Alexandria 36-16 in the A game.

In the first quarter, Tipton was not the best of guests as they took a 13-6 lead behind a balanced scoring attack in which four Blue Devils scored. On the defensive side of the ball, the scrappy Tipton defense would shut out the Tigers in the second period along with building their lead to 20-6 at the break behind Aubree Elston's six quarter points.

After both teams returned from the locker rooms, Alexandria began to play Tipton tough on defense by holding the Lady Blue Devils to only four points. Nevertheless, Alexandria could not convert and Tipton still held a 14-point lead at 24-10 entering the final stanza. The Lady Blue Devils then went on a 12-6 run in the fourth quarter to help secure their third win of the season.

In scoring, Tipton was led by Taylor Degenkolb who had a game high of 12 points. Also scoring for the Lady Blue Devils was Lindsay Friend on the inside with eight points, Elston with six, Brooklyn Juday with five, Lindsay Nichols with three, and Hayley Lineberry and Krista Schulenburg each with two.

The B team was also successful this evening with an impressive 22-15 comeback victory to move to 1-0 on the season.

At the onset, it was clear that this game would be a defensive struggle with the Tigers taking the early advantage at 4-2. Despite being down, the Lady Blue Devils 1-3-1 trap defense helped them to take back the lead at 6-5 with very few seconds to play in the second quarter. Unfortunately, Alexandria was able to convert on a layup to give them a 7-6 halftime lead. In the third quarter, Tipton's offensive woes continued just as Alexandria started to catch fire behind three field goals.

The Lady Blue Devils found themselves with the daunting task of having to overcome a 13-8 deficit in the fourth quarter. But little did anyone know, Alexandria would only score on two more free throws as the B team clawed their way back into the game. In addition, the Tipton offense, which had been held in check for most of the evening, exploded in the final period behind Schulenburg and Nichols who scored eight and six points in the quarter respectively to give the B team the victory.

"Krista and Lindsay played inspired basketball in that last quarter," B Team Coach Kyle Etherington said, "From top to bottom, we received contributions from everyone. I could not be more proud of them."

Also scoring for the Lady Blue Devils was Amy Doversberger who had a career high of four points along with Jade McCormack and Audra West each contributing two.

The Tipton 8th graders return to action when they open up their first home game of the season with a huge match-up against Carmel Clay on Tuesday, December 18 at 5:30 pm.