EDGERTON – The opening of the Green Meadows Conference season finally took place tonight as the Lady Rams of Tinora headed deep into Williams County to battle the young Edgerton Bulldogs.

Lady Rams Head Coach Andrew Thiel has preached tough defense throughout this season, nothing was more evident than the final seven minutes at the Babe Shoup Gymnasium at Edgerton High School on Thursday night.

The first quarter saw the Lady Rams and senior Addison Lee catch fire, Lee with six initial points, led the Tinora to an 10-6 lead after the initial quarter.

Lee started the Lady Rams second quarter with a bucket, giving her eight points, and gave Tinora an 12-8 lead with 7:30 remaining in the quarter. This would be the only points of the second quarter for Tinora.

Edgerton would tighten up on the defense end, as well as seeing sophomores Alivia Farnham and Ava Swank heat up. The Bulldogs would eventually catch Tinora and take an 13-12 lead with 4 minutes remaining in the first half. 

Edgerton’s Casey Eeretts also got in on the hot shooting, draining a deep three to give the Bulldogs a 16-12 lead with three minutes to go in the second half. Neither team could find the basket over the final three minutes.
Edgerton would exit with a 16-12 lead at the half.

Addison Lee led the Lady Rams with eight first half points, while Edgerton was led by Ava Swank with eight as well.

The third quarter would see the Edgerton lead grow to as much as 19-12 on a deep right wing three by Alivia Farnham with 7:15 remaining in the quarter. Farnham would wind up with a game high 18 points.

Tinora would chip away in the third quarter, but the Bulldogs and Farnham would eventually exit the third quarter with a 30-25 lead.

The fourth quarter would see Lady Rams Eowyn Blanchard on the bench with four personal fouls. It would also see Alivia Farnham again drain a deep three from the right side, giving the Bulldogs a 33-25 advantage with 7:10 to play. This would be Farnham’s 18th point, and her last point, as Tinora’s Julia Durfey was on lockdown mode over the next seven minutes, not letting Farnham out of her sight.

The Lady Rams defense would limit Edgerton to just two more points over the final 7:10 of the game. 

Still trailing, and one of their leading scorers on the bench in Blanchard, the Lady Rams needed a spark. It came on a Noa Okuley left wing three, cutting the Bulldogs lead to 33-30 with 6:10 remaining.

Tinora’s Julia Durfey, on lockdown on the defensive end, hit a right corner three, tying the game at 33-33 with 4:30 remaining. Julia would come back on the next trip, driving left baseline and rolling it in, Tinora grabbed a 35-33 lead with 3:44 remaining.

Coach Thiel now had the chance to bring his scorer off the bench in Blanchard, and it paid off down the stretch. Eowyn would head to the line numerous times over the final two minutes as she would wind up with a team high 14 points. 

Tinora’s tough man on man defense, limited Edgerton to zero points over the final seven minutes of the game, bringing back home a 40-35 win.

This was a total team win, guard Karli Okuley, scoring just one point, led the charge on defense with 11 rebounds as well as leading the offense.

Timely scoring by Nova Okuley, and great post play by Emma Bailey also helped in the win. 

Great job, ladies!

TINORA  10-2-13-14=40
EDGERTON 6-10-14-5=35

Tinora scoring: Lee 8, K Okuley 1, Blanchard 14, Durfey 5, M Okuley 10, Bailey 2

Edgerton scoring: Giesige 2, Farnham 18, Swank 9, Everetts 6

Three-point goals: Tinora – Lee 2, Blanchard 2, Durfey, N. Okuley. Edgerton – Farnham 4, Swank, Everetts

Junior varsity game-Edgerton 23-20 (2 quarters only)

Tinora improves to 6-3, 1-0 in the GMC and will host Miller City on Tuesday, Jan 9th.

Edgerton falls to 3-7 and will play host to North Central on the 9th as well.

The Higbea Embroidery Player of the Game went to Julia Durfey, great job, Julia.