H.S. girls basketball: No. 6 Edwardsburg starts slowly, wins by 70 over visiting Niles
EDWARDSBURG — As far as girls basketball coach Jon Pobuda is concerned, eight is enough for No. 6 (Division 2) Edwardsburg.
No need for any more players. Pobuda’s eight Eddies each got into the scoring column, led by the senior triumvirate of Ella Castelucci (19 points), Macey Laubach (18) and Katie Schaible (16), as the unbeaten Eddies rolled to their 11th straight victory of the season in an 89-19 rout of Wolverine South neighbor Niles Friday night.
►Girls game: No. 6 Edwardsburg starts slowly, wins by 70 over visiting Niles
“Our girls play hard for 32 minutes,” Pobuda said after the Eddies set season highs for points scored and margin of victory. “We’re never not going to do that. With eight girls, we want to make sure we’re playing hard. Our execution could have been better tonight, getting into the offense and being fluid in the offense. We had some forced turnovers and missed a bunch of easy shots. But we almost scored 90 points by just playing hard.”
Coach Jessica Johnson, whose 2-7 Vikings trailed 6-5 a little more than halfway through the first quarter, never got closer than four points the rest of the way. The Eddies, 4-0 in the Wolverine South, led 19-7 after the first quarter and then forced 19 turnovers in the second quarter while scoring 33 points and taking a 52-15 lead to the locker room.
A 17-0 third-quarter shutout was perhaps made easy to stomach by a running clock before Niles ended a 14:06 scoring drought on a Matigan Riggenbach free throw with 3:14 remaining in the game.
“Edwardsburg just wears you down,” Johnson said. “They work hard. They’ve got a good program.”
These Eddies are good because the seniors – the 5-foot-4 Castelucci, the 5-foot-9 Laubach and the 5-foot-7 Schaible – have been together for a long time.
“We’ve been playing together since like fifth grade,” said Schaible, whose 16 points came on 5-of-7 shooting, four of the baskets coming from beyond the 3-point line. She also added six rebounds, three assists and three steals. “We have pretty good team chemistry. We know how each other play. We don’t have a selfish player on this team.”
The Eddies forced 41 turnovers, 28 of them coming on steals, and eight of those thefts belonged to Castelucci, who started 3-of-11 from the floor but finished 9-of-20 and also had six rebounds. Laubach’s 18 points came on 8-of-13 shooting and she also contributed five steals, four rebounds and two assists.
Pobuda sat his seniors in the fourth quarter, allowing juniors Lindsey Dalenberg and Mackenzie Schaible and sophomore Caitlin Tighe to have productive scoring nights with 12, nine and eight points respectively. Junior Averie Markel had five points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Eddies, who finished with a 37-20 edge on the boards and shot 53 percent (37 of 70) from the field.
Senior Kamryn Patterson led Niles with six points on a pair of 3-pointers in the first half.
Both teams have road Wolverine South contests Tuesday. The Eddies hope to improve on their 4-0 league mark at Sturgis, while the Vikings take their 0-2 conference record to Three Rivers.
EDWARDSBURG 89, NILES 19
At Edwardsburg
NILES (19): Amara Palmer 0, Kamryn Patterson 6, Natalie Lucero 2, Elly Matlock 4, Brynn Lake 0, Ayshia Smith 0, Lacheryl Hampton 3, Alizabeth VanDePutte 0, Bree Lake 0, Kaylynn Radecki 2, Matigan Riggenbach 2. TOTALS 7 2-8 19.
EDWARDSBURG (89): Macey Laubach 18, Katie Schaible 16, Ella Castelucci 19, Averie Markel 5, Amy Bossler 2, Caitlin Tighe 8, Mackenzie Schaible 9, Lindsey Dalenberg 12. TOTALS 37 6-9 89.
Niles | 7 | 15 | 15 | 19
Edwardsburg | 19 | 52 | 69 | 89
3-point goals: Niles 3 (Patterson 2, Hampton 1), Edwardsburg 9 (K. Schaible 4, M. Schaible 3, Laubach 1, Markel 1). Total fouls (fouled out): Niles 8 (none), Edwardsburg 8 (none). Records: Niles 2-7 (0-2 Wolverine Conference South), Edwardsburg 11-0 (4-0 Wolverine Conference South).