By Rob Potter
ELDRED — February 19, 2002 – The outcome of Thursday’s non-league basketball game between the Tri-Valley Lady Bears and the Eldred Lady Yellowjackets can be best explained by two words.
And those two words would be “second quarter.”
In those eight minutes of action, Eldred (7-10) outscored visiting Tri-Valley (7-12) by a 23-13 margin. That 10-point margin – combined with the 14-5 advantage the Lady Yellowjackets had in the first quarter – gave Eldred a commanding 37-18 lead at halftime.
The Lady Yellowjackets maintained a comfortable advantage throughout the third and fourth quarters, posting a 68-41 victory.
“We had 19 fouls and scored only 18 points in the first half,” T-V Coach Karen Furman said. “I think they scored about 16 points in the first half from the foul line.”
For the game, Eldred was 19-of-32 from the free throw line and T-V was nine of 16.
In addition to the foul situation, Furman noted that the Lady Bears really missed the presence of senior guard Ellie Dymond, who was not playing due to the death of her father only two days before.
“It was an emotional game for the girls,” Furman said. “Ellie is our captain and the girls really wanted to win for her. They dedicated the game to her dad. Maybe they were trying extra hard to get to loose balls and that’s what caused some of the fouls.”
Amanda Krom scored a team-high 12 points for the Lady Bears, while teammates Heather Bachmann and Lauren Dilberian each netted six points.
Leading Eldred to the win was senior center Stacie Blaut, who recorded a double-double. She scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the contest. Teammates Lauren Timan and Charlene French added 13 and eight points, respectively.
“This was the first time we had the team together in the last four games,” Eldred Coach Frank Kean said. “Two girls were sick and missed a game, then two others missed a game and so on. But tonight they were back and played well, we played great as a team.”
Kean noted that since his team will not be moving on to sectional play next week, the contest was the final home game for the Eldred seniors. Those Lady Yellowjacket seniors include Blaut, French, Anja Meyer, Amanda Pierce, Becky Ryman, Aimee Schneider and Casey Williams.
“I’m very proud of these seniors,” Kean said. “We will miss them a lot next season. They are nice girls and great competitors.”