GIRLS
It took 40 minutes and a few clutch shots down the stretch but the Spirit Lake Indians pulled off a season sweep over the Spencer Tigers with a 47-44 double overtime win on Tuesday night. Mary Brown knocked down a triple with half a minute to go in regulation to tie the game at 40 and force overtime. The teams would take it to a second extra session where Brown came up with another huge field goal, her third 3-pointer, to make it 45-44 with a minute and a half left putting the Indians up for good.
In a game of runs, the Indians scored nine of the final 13 points of regulation to tie the game at 40 after giving up a 10-point lead by virtue of a 15-0 Spencer run in the 4th quarter.
KJ Veldman led all scorers with 15 points, putting in three triples as well while Brown finished with 11 points, all in the final 20 minutes of the game. The Indians held the leading scorer of the Lakes Conference, Spencer’s Ally Mahrt, to just eight points. IT was the second time in a row Spirit Lake stymied the Tigers’ top offensive threat. In 72 minutes against Spirit Lake this season, Mahrt has scored just 12 points. The senior came in to the contest averaging 19 points per game.
Neither team has scored more than 50 points in any of the last seven meetings in the series. The win makes it four straight for Spirit Lake as the Indians snapped the Tigers’ five-game win streak. Spirit Lake (13-3, 7-2 Lakes Conference) is now a full 1.5 games in front of Spencer. With an Estherville-Lincoln Central win on Tuesday, the Indians keep pace with the 2nd-place Midgets, still a half game behind ELC.
BOYS
The Spirit Lake Indians held a six-point lead in the 2nd quarter but a 16-0 Spencer run to close the half put the Tigers ahead for good as Spencer stopped a streak of four straight losses with a 63-48 win over Spirit Lake on Monday night. The Indians gave the ball up 27 times on the night, many of those turnovers coming during the backbreaking Spencer run.
Jay Monahan scored 21 for the Tigers (4-8, 3-4 Lakes Conference) who defeated the Indians earlier this season by 10 in Spencer. Spirit Lake (6-9, 1-7 Lakes Conference) got 12 points from Sawyer Harms to lead the club. The Tigers bench outscored the Indian bench 27-2 and Spirit Lake was outrebounded by nine in the contest. The Indians return to action on Friday as they host LeMars.
