Lady Grizzlies slip at home, dominates away
The Lady Grizzlies faced off against the West Valley Eagles at home Friday, Jan. 11 where they fell to the visiting team, 51-48.
Following the Friday home game, the Lady Grizzlies went on the road to face off against Central Valley. The Lady Grizzlies defeated Central Valley with a whopping score of 67-31.
Lady Grizzlies vs. West Valley
The first quarter started ugly for both sides, each team garnering fouls in the first two minutes of the game. West Valley broke out of the gate with the first six points of the game against the Lady Grizzlies.
After a time out by the Lady Grizzlies, they reorganized and Grace Memmott came through to put two points up for the Lady Grizzlies. Lainey Nevis and Ellie Stewart wasted no time to close the gap in the minutes that followed, bringing the score to 6-6 in the early minutes of the game.
West Valley kept the pressure on, not giving the Lady Grizzlies a chance to overtake them. West Valley finished the first quarter with 13 points to the Lady Grizzlies 9 points.
Second quarter looked promising at first for the Lady Grizzlies with two baskets from Haily Mena, and Stewart in the first minute of the quarter, to tie with West Valley 13-13.
The Lady Grizzlies were able to pull ahead with four minutes left in the second quarter; unfortunately West Valley came back in the final minute and a half to overtake the Lady Grizzlies in the second quarter, 27-22.
The third quarter looked like the Lady Grizzlies were making a comeback after a few contentious minutes of the quarter. Ronnie Merrill, and Ellie Stewart drove the Lady Grizzlies offense during the quarter, tallying more than half the points the Lady Grizzlies scored during the third quarter. With just under a minute left, the Lady Grizzlies pulled ahead of West Valley, 41-36.
Although the Lady Grizzlies came into the fourth leading, West Valley, at the four-minute mark, took over the Lady Grizzlies lead and wouldn’t relent.
Shelby Anderson tied up the game with a two point shot with just over a minute on the clock to bring the score to 49-48. But West Valley shot one more two-point shot over Lassen to finish the game 51-48.
The Lady Grizzlies definitely gave it their all but just couldn’t out shoot West Valley.
Stewart led the team in scoring and rebounds, with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Nevis followed up with nine points, while Anderson finished with seven points.
Lady Grizzlies vs. Central Valley
The first quarter had the Lady Grizzlies coming in with powerful offensive plays. While Central Valley was able to put the five points up for their team, that would be all they would score against Lassen in the first quarter.
Stewart brought in 10 points for the Lady Grizzlies in the first quarter with Lainey Nevis, and Grace Memmott backing up by the end of the first quarter, leaving Central Valley trailing 26-5 heading into the second quarter.
After the domination the Lady Grizzlies played during the first quarter, they managed to maintain a lead going into the second quarter, tallying another 10 points, widening the gap to 36-5 before Central Valley finally responded with a three-point shot.
The Lady Grizzlies continued their powerful offense with Merrill, and Larson leading in offense and scoring in the second quarter. The quarter ended with what can only be described as a big difference in score and skill, as the Lady Grizzlies led 44-19.
The third quarter appeared to follow the same pattern as the first. As Stewart brought three two point field goals for Lassen, four minutes into the third quarter, and another in the last minute of the quarter.
The Lady Grizzlies were able to maintain a dominating offense and a crushing defense during the third quarter only allowing the Central Valley team to score two points by the end of the quarter.
The final quarter appeared to be the toughest for the Grizzlies, with Central Valley finally able to pull together some semblance of defense, and they were able to stifle some of the shooting attempts made by the Lady Grizzlies.
The Lady Grizzlies still had no issue maintaining their huge lead over their opponent.
Becky Struthers led the scoring in the fourth quarter with four points for Lassen while Stewart, Anderson and Kayla Downs all brought in the rest to make up the Lady Grizzlies 11 points during the final quarter.
Central Valley finished the quarter with 10 points, the closest point-for-point quarter of the game. Ending the game with a staggering final score of 67-31.
The Lady Grizzlies put a huge team effort in against Central Valley, with Stewart tallying 20 points, eight rebounds, Struthers and Nevis finished with eight points each. Larson, Anderson and Merrill recorded six points each.
The Lady Grizzlies hit the road to Anderson, California Friday, Jan. 18. Results were unavailable at press time. Look for the results in the Tuesday, Jan. 29 issue of the Lassen County Times.
