BonnerSprings.com

The Bonner Springs High School girls' basketball team started out shooting red-hot and ended the game on fire, but it was the defense the Bravettes played that sparked them to a 55-42 victory at Basehor-Linwood last Friday night.

"That's one thing we pride ourselves on is our defense," said Bonner head coach Garold Baker. "We adjusted well and played good defense. We want teams to not want to play us because of our defense."

The Bravette defense forced 23 Basehor-Linwood turnovers and held the Lady Bobcats to just 28.9 percent (13-of-45) from the field.

Bonner's Lindsey Stanbrough, right, looks for an open teammate while Basehor-Linwood's Kara Lackner guards her closely in the Bravettes win last Friday.

"That's not how it's been the last week or two of practice," said Mardy Robinson, Basehor-Linwood head coach. "I felt like we had been doing a good job of knocking down our shots. I guess we need to put them in some more pressure situations in practice so that they'll knock them down in the game."

Bonner Springs put the nets ablaze in the opening moments of the game, making their first five shots from the field. Basehor-Linwood stayed close, cutting an early seven point deficit down to three, 12-9 with 3:50 left in the first quarter, after Kelly Laffere and Jackie Horn made back-to-back baskets.

But that was as close as the Lady Bobcats would be the rest of the game.

Amanda Berry, who had eight points in the first quarter, along with Holly Thompson and Alicia Forshey, all made short jumpers in the final minutes of the period for the Bravettes. Then Bonner scored the first six points of the second quarter to close out a 13-2 run, taking a 25-11 lead with just over six minutes left in the first half.

"Shooting-wise, that first quarter we shot the ball as good as I've seen us shoot the ball," Baker said. "We may not shoot that percentage all year, but it's nice to know we have five people on the floor that can shoot the ball and score.

"Early on, most of them were catch and shoot shots. You've got to like that. We executed our offenses extremely well."

Basehor-Linwood was able to cut the Bonner advantage in half to 29-22 with under a minute left before intermission, but for the rest of the game, the Lady Bobcats made just six-of-25, including missing their first 10 shots in the third quarter.

"That pretty much killed us," Robinson said. "We came out (at the half) playing tough defense and made some stops, but at the other end we couldn't convert and that's going to hurt you every time.

"We definitely didn't want to start with a loss, but I saw some good things. There are definitely some things we need to work on. Our defensive rotation wasn't very good and we had some problems with our help-side defense. I think if we would have knocked down our shots, even half the shots we took, we would have been in the game. I think what hurt us the most was that they were knocking down their outside shots and we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn."

Courtney Reed led all scorers in the game with 18 points for the Lady Bobcats. Horn, Basehor-Linwood's leading scorer the past couple of years, was held to just three points.

"Courtney played really well for us," Robinson said. "They (Bonner) were taking Jackie away. Every time Jackie got the ball they were double and triple-teaming her. So we tried to run a few offensive plays to get Courtney the ball underneath."

Baker praised the defensive effort of Lindsey Stanbrough on Horn. "Lindsey did a super job on her. We said we couldn't allow her to come out and have 20 or 30 points and still be able to beat them."

Andrea Dill led the Bravettes in the scoring column with 11 points and Berry added 10, all in the first half.

With 5:38 left in the game, B-L's Kelly Laffere landed face-first on the court while attempting to drive to the basket. Laffere got up immediately after the play, but blood was flowing from her nose.

Laffere left the game and did not return, though she wanted to, but a trip to the hospital revealed that her nose was broken in three or four places. The nose was set on Monday afternoon, leaving Laffere's availability in doubt for Friday's game against Piper.

Score by quarters:

Bonner Springs 19 14 10 12 55

Basehor-Linwood 11 12 4 15 42

Bonner Springs (1-0): Morgan McConico 1-2 2-2 4 4, Holly Thompson 4-7 0-1 3 8, Amittia Davis 0-0 0-0 0 0, Alicia Forshey 4-6 0-0 3 8, Melissa Wiseman 3-4 0-2 4 6, Katie Szewc 0-0 0-0 1 0, Holly Miller 0-0 0-1 0 0, Amanda Berry 4-9 2-3 4 10, Lindsey Stanbrough 3-7 2-3 2 8, Andrea Dill 4-12 3-4 4 11. Totals: 23-47 9-16 25 55.

Three-point goals (0-6): Berry 0-2, Dill 0-4. Rebounds (27): Stanbrough 6, Berry 4, Forshey 4, Dill 3, Thompson 3, Wiseman 2, Szewc 1, Team 4. Assists (12): McConico 4, Thompson 3, Dill 2, Berry, Forshey, Stanbrough. Steals (11): Dill 3, Thompson 3, McConico 2, Berry, Forshey, Stanbrough. Blocked shots: None.

Basehor-Linwood (0-1): Kelly Laffere 2-6 2-2 2 6, Jeni Purtee 2-10 0-3 2 4, Kara Lackner 0-2 1-2 5 1, Jackie Horn 1-7 1-2 2 3, Courtney Reed 4-7 10-14 4 18, Emily Hoffman 1-4 0-0 0 2, Lesley Hancock 0-1 0-0 0 0, Alex Jeannin 2-6 0-2 2 4, Jamie McDonald 0-1 0-0 0 0, Tara Lucas 0-0 0-0 1 0, Ryan Wohletz 0-0 1-2 1 1, Aubrey Bittel 1-1 1-2 0 3. Totals: 13-45 16-29 19 42.

Three-point goals (0-5): Hoffman 0-1, Laffere 0-1, Purtee 0-3. Rebounds (36): Horn 6, Jeannin 4, Laffere 4, Purtee 4, Reed 4, Bittel 2, Lucas 2, Hoffman, Lackner, Wohletz, Team 7. Assists (8): Lackner 2, Laffere 2, Bittel, Hancock, Hoffman, Horn. Steals (8): Jeannin 2, Laffere 2, Purtee 2, Hoffman, Lackner. Blocked shots (2): Laffere, Reed.

In the junior varsity contest, Basehor-Linwood jumped out to an 11-2 lead after one quarter and held on for a 44-31 victory over Bonner Springs.

The Lady Bobcats took a 20-11 advantage into the intermission, then held off the Bravettes in the second half by outscoring BSHS, 24-20.

Ryan Wohletz paced Basehor-Linwood with 11 points, while Amittia Davis led Bonner Springs with 10.

Score by quarters:

Bonner Springs 2 9 10 10 31

Basehor-Linwood 11 9 12 12 44

Bonner Springs scoring: Jill Gardner 0, Bethany Gallagher 3, Alexis Kimbrough 0, Amittia Davis 10, Ashley Bush 0, Morgan Tuttle 6, Shayla Davis 8, Holly Miller 4, LaPourchea McConico 0.

Basehor-Linwood scoring: Lesley Hancock 8, Jamie McDonald 0, Ryan Wohletz 11, Aubrey Bittel 8, Lindsay Cunningham 0, Heather Peeler 4, Sara Hashman 3, Tiffany Bates 0, Kindle Rose 4, Sara Chrisman 6.