Girls' Basketball Team 2-0 After Win Over Mississinewa
28 Nov 2008

by Eric Christiansen
The Manchester High School girls’ basketball team overcame 34 turnovers against Mississinewa to improve to 2-0 on the season with a 67-52 win.
Three Lady Squires scored in double figures, and nine players scored overall as Manchester led for all but two minutes of the game.
Junior Jessica Bedke led Manchester with 19 points, while Katie Bowers scored 16, and Amber Fratus tossed in 15 to pace the Lady Squires.
Manchester played much of the game without senior starter Noelle Patrick, who was in foul trouble. Bowers also sat for much of the second half with foul trouble.
“We had some good scoring,” coach Mark Underwood said. “The neat thing was that we had Katie, Noelle, and Hannah Little in foul trouble, and we were still able to function out there, which is good.”
Mississinewa started the game with a full-court press, but Manchester handled it with ease in the early going, jumping out to a quick 13-2 lead.
“Mississinewa came in with a 2-0 record, and in both wins, they used their press to get baskets,” Underwood said. “The fact that we were able to break it early on really helped us out.”
Mississinewa cut the Lady Squire lead to 14-8 at the end of the first, but Patrick hit a three pointer, her only points of the night, to up the lead to 17-8.
The Lady Indians kept things close, but in the last 90 seconds of the first half, Manchester went on a 7-2 run to take a 31-21 halftime lead.
Becka Guthrie hit two free throws, followed by a basket from freshman Meika Kennedy. The run was capped off by a driving three point play from Bedke with 4.3 seconds left in the half.
Bowers opened the second half with a basket on an assist from Bedke, and 30 seconds later, Bowers returned the favor, hitting Bedke outside the arc for a three pointer.
Mississinewa stayed close with two straight baskets. After a Manchester miss, Bowers got a steal at midcourt and found Bedke up the floor for a lay up to give the Lady Squires a 38-26 lead with 4:46 left in the third quarter.
Fifteen seconds later, Bowers was whistled for her fourth foul of the game. Mississinewa, however, missed their next four free throws.
They cut the lead to 38-30 though, with two straight baskets, but the Lady Squires went on a 6-0 run on free throws from Guthrie and baskets from Little and Fratus.
Manchester never let Mississinewa cut the lead to closer than 11 points in the fourth quarter, in the process, hitting 8-11 free throws in the fourth quarter to secure the win.
“I was very pleased with our free throw shooting,” Underwood said. “We had some first home game jitters, but we got them out of the way. We feel very lucky to be 2-0 right now, but at the same time, the girls have worked hard and have earned it.
“This was a total team effort tonight,” he continued. “The young kids did a good job, and the other starters showed some good leadership. You could see them step up to the forefront and do a little more talking than they normally would. That’s huge, because as a coach, there is only so much you can do from the sideline.”
Bedke added three rebounds to her 19 points, while Bowers had four rebounds, five assists, and six steals, and Fratus was huge with 14 rebounds to go with her 15 points. Guthrie had two rebounds, while Kennedy had three steals.
The Lady Squires travel to Class 2A #8 Winamac on Tuesday and #2 Oak Hill on Saturday.