Fremont 45  Sparta 32

This one was ugly from the start, but the playoffs are not a beauty contest, its win and move on.  Sparta had ended the girls season in districts in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2021.  We have not beaten them in the playoffs in recent memory so It was nice to send them home.  We greatly struggled taking care of the ball throughout the game, especially early where we turned the ball over on our first 5 possessions without getting a shot.  Sparta got off to a 8-0 lead and 10-2 before we hit a few shots.  Riley Chase had all of our first quarter points including two huge 3pt shots to put us within two at the end of the quarter, 10-8.  We settled in some and outscored Sparta 13-8 in the second quarter to take a 21-18 halftime lead.  Our turnovers and sloppy play prevented us from really extending the lead.  In the second half our full court pressure really wore Sparta down creating alot of Sparta miscues, unfortunatly we continued to be sloppy with the ball and only led by 7 entering the 4th, 35-28.  We did a better job in the 4th taking care of the ball and we made 8-10 free throws to put the game away.  It was a huge adjustment for us in practice yesterday and the game as one of our best and most important players, Mia Clemence is out with a bad ankle sprain and we had another not play early because of illness....but our girls are resilient and made adjustments throughout the game to win and move on.  As we have all year we got contributions from multiple girls.  Riley Chase had a huge game with a game high 17 points to go with 8 steals.  Jessica Bennett hit some huge shots in the middle two quarters and ended with 14 points, 7 rebounds and 7 blocks.  Khaila Noordyk played great off the bench with 6 points and 9 rebounds.  Taylor DeKuiper had 7 steals to go with her 7 rebounds.  We will play Grant on Friday in the District Championship at 7pm.  We are 19-4, 12-0.