Versailles – The Versailles Lady Tigers took advantage of an 18-6 fourth quarter to defeat the visiting Tri-Village Lady Patriots 54-44 in non-conference play on Senior Day in Versailles.
Versailles honored No. 5 Jenna Dirksen, No. 30 Heidi Stammen, and No. 33 Allison Schwartz before the Saturday afternoon game.
“They are a special group of girls,” said Versailles coach, Stacy White. “Ones that have for four years worked, they ask questions, they try to do their very best. They’ve been in the gym extra time.”
The Lady Tigers took the opening period 15-11 with Katey Litten accounting for five Versailles’ first quarter points.
Quarter No. 2 had the game tied at 17-17 and 20-20 before the Lady Tigers used a 7-2 run to lead 27-22. Tri-Village closed out first half scoring with a bucket sending the teams to the break with Versailles leading 27-24.
“We knew it was going to be a battle, they’re a great team,” White said of Tri-Village. “Our girls really locked in.”
The Lady Patriots opened third-quarter play with six unanswered points to lead 30-27. Tri-Village held thee point leads 32-29, 36-33, and pushed its lead to five, 38-33. Jenna Dirksen drained a 3-pointer for a 38-35 score. Tri-Village took a 38-36 lead to the final quarter of action.
Tri-Village struck first in the opening seconds of the fourth on a Kinnedy Hager basket to lead 40-36. A Versailles 5-0 run gave the Lady Tigers a 41-40 lead and held a 45-44 lead at 4:51.
“We have to protect the basketball that’s what it comes down to,” said Tri-Village coach, Brad Gray. “We have to figure out how the handle the basketball against the five kids that are on the court and not give possessions away. You have a two-point lead going into the fourth quarter and they outscore us by 12 and a lot of that is because we couldn’t even get shots.”
Versailles closed out the game on a 9-0 run to earn a double-digit 54-44 win.
“Give Versailles credit,” Coach Gray stated. “The Dirksen girls come out on fire today. She hit a bunch of threes and Litten proved today [i]she was the best player on the floor and took the game over when she needed to.”
“For the most part, we took care of the ball and valued each possession,” Coach White noted. “Katey played so well – all of our guards played within themselves and pushed in transition.”
Katey Litten led Versailles and all scorers with a game-high 19 points. Kynnedi Hager paced Tri-Village with 18 points.
BOXSCORE:
VERSAILLES – K. Litten 19, J. Dirksen 15, A. Schwartz 10, T. Wagner 6, S. Stammen 4 – TOTALS 15 9-12 5 54
TRI-VILLAGE – K. Hager 18, T. Mize 9, A. Hines 8, S. DeLong 5, Kenna Wilcox 2, Kiersten Wilcox 2 – TOTALS 18 5-9 1 44
3-POINTERS
Versailles 5 (J. Dirksen 4, K. Litten 1)
Tri-Village 1 (S. DeLong 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
15-12-09-18 54 Versailles
11-13-14-06 44 Tri-Village
