Kewanee girls basketball handed first TRAC conference losses
After winning their first six conference games the Kewanee Boiler Girls were handed a pair of losses this past week.
The first loss was at the hand of the Princeton Lady Tigers at Prouty gym on Thursday, Jan, 20. It was the third meeting between the two teams. Earlier in December, Kewanee gave Princeton their only conference loss with a 50-45 win at Brockman Gym. The two teams met again in the Lady Bruin Holiday Classic just before Christmas. Princeton was victorious in that contest by a score of 47-35.
The most recent contest saw the Lady Tigers leave the court with a 55-45 decision. Princeton built a 27-19 halftime lead and, despite a spirited effort by Kewanee in the second half, held on for the win.
Senior Lainey Kelly had a monster game for the Boilers Girls with 14 points, 18 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Senior Emily Eggimann chipped in with 10 points. Princeton had 4 players score in double digits led by Senior Morgan Coleman who put up 16 points for the contest after having only 6 points total in the first 2 games against Kewanee.
In the preliminary contest, Kewanee's Sophomore squad defeated Princeton 51-34. Kewanee was led by Hannah Tiska's 13 points and Starjeda Jordan's 11 points. With the win Kewanee moved to 7-3 and 5-1 in the conference.
On Saturday the Boiler Girls hosted a makeup game with St. Bede Academy. The game had originally been scheduled for Jan. 8 but had to be cancelled due to health concerns in the Lady Bruin program. The two teams had met earlier in the Lady Bruin Holiday Classic with St. Bede picking up a 50-37 win.
This time the Lady Bruins got off to a fast start building up a 15-6 first quarter and 37-22 halftime leads. Despite being outscored by the Boiler Girls by 2 in the third quarter St. Bede cruised to a 56-34 victory.
Kewanee was led by Emma Crofton and Marissa Stevens. The Juniors tallied 12 and 10 points respectively. The visitors were led by Seniors Leah Smudzinski and Lia Bosnich. They scored 16 and 14 points respectively. There was no sophomore contest.
With the two losses the Boiler Girls fall to 10-13 for the season and 6-2 in the TRAC East. Next for Kewanee are three consecutive roads games, including a contest at St. Bede on Jan. 27. St. Bede has a record of 5-2 in the conference and also has a date coming with the conference leading 6-1 Princeton Lady Tigers.
This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Kewanee girls basketball handed first TRAC conference losses
