Hurons bump Newberry for the 51-46 win

The RC Huron girls? basketball team soundly defeated the Newberry Indians Tuesday on home court to the tune of 51-46. A determined Huron squad came out with a 16-8 lead after one quarter and held the gap to 30-23 by the half. The Indians closed the deficit to six points after the third segment, but the Hurons kept up the pressure the entire game, with Ashley Fleming topping the home team scoring with a game-high 30 points.

In the opening minutes of the third quarter Fleming popped in two baskets on feeds from Megan Hanson and Becky Bruning. Then she put in a freebie to add five points for the Hurons, 35-23. One minute later, Ashley plunked in another basket to stretch the Huron lead to 14 points before Newberry kicked into gear with two free throws and moments later, a basket by their hard-playing guard, Ashley Hedglen

In the final segment, Ashley Fleming once again scored within the first 15 seconds to bring the tally to 45-31 off a Bruning feed. But this was an Ashley-to-Ashley game as Newberry?s Hedglen fired off five more points within the next two minutes, followed by a yet another Newberry basket moments later (47-38).

WITH ONLY 2:40 on the clock, Samantha Hurst scored off a recovery under the basket (49-40), and Ashley Fleming added two more within seconds (51-40). But Newberry did not give up and came back within six seconds for a four-point run (51-44). Late foul trouble almost made the game much closer than necessary when Hedglen sunk two at the free throw line with only two seconds on the clock, for the final 51-46 Huron victory and a 2-6 overall record and 2-2 in conference.

Other Huron scorers were Lindsey Fleming with nine points, Megan Hanson with six, and Hurst, Jenna Vogelheim, and CJ Calabrese with two points each. An always-modest Ashley Fleming said of her 30-point game, ?A lot of our players passed me the ball and that?s mostly where that score came from.?

?THIS WAS a big win for us,? said coach Karl Grambau after he congratulated each player coming out of the dressing room. ?This was a conference game, and it?s homecoming week and we really wanted to get this win. ?We really came out and played well tonight. The girls kept giving Ashley the ball, and that?s what it take

s to open it up on the outside. We were always trying to find the open person. We still have to stop dribble penetration but we can work on that,? Grambau added. It was a happy night all around as the JV team also came away with a 34-22 win over Newberry. The JV had a slim lead at the half, 12-11, and following a great third quarter stretched the gap to 26-17. High for the Hurons were Tiffiny Krueger with 10 points, Laura Konieczny with seven and Jenny Smith with six. ?It was a good win and everybody got in the game,? said coach Jason Wenzel. ?We passed the ball better and it was finally starting to go in for us.?

IN LAST WEEK?S Boyne City game, the varsity dropped to 1-6 after a 53-23 loss. Ashley Fleming was the high scorer with 13 points. The JV also took the loss to the Boyne City Ramblers 55-22. In that game Krueger was high with five points, while Dana Fairbanks and Paquin had four each. The Hurons will travel to Inland Lakes Tuesday and St. Ignace on Thursday.