Miller City 56 Tinora 43

MILLER CITY – The 2022-’23 girls basketball season tipped on a cold, snowy night at the J. Harry Leopold Gymnasium at Miller City High school.

Both Tinora and Miller City were coming into the new season with five seniors, experienced underclassman and high expectations.

The Lady Rams, coming off a 14-9 season, entered with a new head coach in Andrew Thiel, Thiel, the boys freshman coach last season, replaced Kyle Teitji during the Spring.

Midway through the first quarter, both teams were still working out the opening night jitters, Miller City lead Tinora 8-2 with 2:20 remaining in the opening quarter. Grace Pfaul hit a three pointer at the 1:50 mark, giving the Miller City an 11-4 lead, the Wildcats would never look back. The Wildcat lead would stretch to 17-8 after one quarter, Phau would bucket 10 points in the first quarter.

The second quarter saw an avalanche of Wildcat points midway through, the Miller City lead would grow to 30-9 with just over four minutes in the half.
The up and down pace for both teams seemed to affect the play on both ends, numerous turnovers, fouls, and girls tugging at shorts were visible over the past few minutes of the half. The Lady Rams would trim the lead to 34-17 as the teams went to the locker rooms.

Miller City limited Tinora’s big three of Nova & Karli Okuley, and Liv Mueller to just a combined seven points.
Maggi Nagel led the Rams after one half with eight points.

The third quarter didn’t get any better for the Lady Rams as Miller City stretched the lead to as much as 46-19 midway through. The Wildcats would lead 46-25 after three quarters of play.

With Miller City entering the fourth quarter with the game seemingly in hand, the Lady Rams mounted a rally, closing the gap to as little as 52-43 with just under 60 seconds remaining. Karli Okuley would exit, picking up her fifth foul in the final seconds, the Lady Rams would get no closer, falling in the season opener to Miller City 56-43.

Tinora is next in action at Bryan on Tuesday.
Miller City play next on 11/28 at Cory-Rawson High School.

Tinora 7 10 8 18 45
Miller City 18 16 12 10 56

Tinora scoring:
Nova Okuley 13 points
Maggi Nagel 9 points
Liv Mueller 9 points
Karli Okuley 6 points
Emily Harr 2 points
Addison Lee
Dakota Schaffner 2 points

Miller City Scoring:
Grace Pfau 12 points
Jordan Schnipke 11 points
Isabel Reyna 10
Maddie Erford 8 points
Hailey Warnimont 6 points
Tori Wenzinger 5 points
Chelsea Ford 4
Andrea Pfau 2