Lady Eagles Advance to Championship

The Fordland Lady Eagles traveled to Galena to take on New Covenant Academy in the semifinals of the Lady Bear Winter Classic Friday night. After New Covenant scored the first point of the game, the Lady Eagles reeled off 12 unanswered points to go up 12-1 and never looked back. Kayleigh Steimel scored 10 points in the quarter and Shelby Thomason added 4, while four others scored and Fordland led 22-6 after one quarter.

Fordland kept the gas pedal to the floor as they continued to score at will as the Lady Eagles put up 21 points in the quarter behind scoring from six different girls. Kenzie Haskins led the scoring in the quarter with 5 points. Thomason and Loren Bojko had 4 points each while Steimel and Lilly Kindall added 3 points apiece. Elliana Garber also got in the scoring column with a bucket of her own. Fordland took a 43-11 lead into the half.

Fordland did not let up in the third quarter as they built up a 39 point lead to end the third quarter. Thomason led the Lady Eagles with 4 points in the quarter, but got contributions from Steimel, Kindall, Rylie Rippee, Emma Trotter, Britton Suter with 2 points each and Bailey Cook hit one from beyond the arc for 3 points. At the end of the third Fordland led New Covenant 60-21.

The Lady Eagles outscored New Covenant 6-0 in the fourth quarter behind 4 points from Steimel and 2 from Trotter. Fordland took the victory 66-21. All 10 of the Lady Eagles got into the scoring column led by Steimel with 19, followed by Thomason with 12, Kindall with 7, Trotter and Bojko both with 6 points, Haskins 5, Rippee 4, Cook 3, Suter and Garber both with 2 rounding out the scoring. Fordland will play Blue Eye on Saturday for the championship at 5:30. They hope to avenge a loss to the Lady Bulldogs just last month in the Walnut Grove Holiday Classic where Blue Eye defeated the girls by 16.