Marysville Lady Bulldogs 39 Abilene Cowgirls 32
The first meeting between Abilene and Marysville on January 8th, the Lady Bulldogs pulled away for a 45-26 victory. Friday night in Abilene, the game went down to the wire. Marysville took a 22-20 lead into the final quarter. In the fourth, the Lady Bulldogs were aided by the play of their Center, Madison Ronnebaum, while the Cowgirls were hurt by shaky free-throw shooting.
Ronnebaum, was dominant, with 12 points and 10 rebounds, in the first match-up. Friday night in Abilene, she was a non-factor through the first three quarters but came to life in the fourth for Marysville. She scored 11 of her 12 points in the final quarter. The Lady Bulldogs were led in scoring by Eva Peschel, who finished with a team high 13.
Abilene kept in the game with the play of Senior, Abi Lillard, who shinned bright on Senior Night. She finished with a game-high 17 points. Jenna Hayes was also big in the fourth, as she finished with all 7 of her points in the final quarter. The Cowgirls unfortunately made just 1-8 free-throws in the final quarter.
Abilene fell to 3-10, 1-5 with the loss, while Marysville improved to 5-7 and 4-2 in the NCKL.
Marysville Bulldogs 51 Abilene Cowboys 50
The Marysville Bulldogs walked away from Abilene High School with their fourth straight victory in Abilene Friday night. The Cowboys defeated Marysville 58-47 on January 8th and late in the first half looked like they were in position to pull off the season sweep.
Abilene led 26-20 with 1:54 to play in the first half but wouldn’t score again until the 2:15 mark of the third quarter. During that time-span, Marysville used a 14-0 run to take control of the game. The Bulldog’s Gavin Pieschl, capped the run with a free-throw to make the score 34-26 with 2:37 to play in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Abilene kept in the game with the play of Kaleb Becker. Becker scored 9 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth. He tied his career-high in points, with his big night. The Cowboys fell behind 49-45 with 58 seconds left in the game after Pieschl buried a pair of free-throws. Becker was then fouled, he hit the first free-throw but missed the second but Avery Bryson got a put-back to cut the deficit to 49-48 with 40 seconds left in the game. The Cowboys would get the ball back and got a basket from Becker to take the lead at 50-49 with 16.5 seconds left. On Marysville’s final possession, Bryar O’Neil drew a foul and missed both free-throws which led to a jump-ball on the rebound. The Bulldogs kept possession and inbounded the ball with 4.1 seconds left. They got the winning basket from Ben Kirkland at the buzzer to seal the victory. Kirkland had a huge night as he finished with a game-high 20 points.
The loss by Abilene puts Wamego in sole possession of first place in the NCKL. The Red Raiders did not play Friday night. They are currently 8-4, 3-1. The Cowboys fell to 7-3, 3-2 and Marysville improved to 10-3, 4-2. Abilene will travel to Concordia Monday for a boy’s only matchup. It is a makeup game from December 18.
