Amboy uses third-quarter surge to pull away from Le-Win to take title

AMBOY – Up by four at halftime, the Amboy girls basketball team used its trademark defense to spark a third-quarter run, ballooning that lead to 24 by the time the third quarter was over in a 51-36 win over Lena-Winslow Monday in the championship game of the Amboy Holiday Tournament.

Amboy led 24-20 at the half, then came out of the break with a quick run as Kyleigh Donna hit a basket in the paint, Ashley Althaus came up with a steal, Mallory Powers added a pair of free throws, Abi Payne came up with a steal, and Powers fed Althaus for a layup.

It became a 21-1 run, capped off by back-to-back Gabby Jones baskets to make it 45-21.

“When our defense is good, it really leads into our offense and everyone contributing,” Jones said.

Amboy (15-0) repeated in the third quarter what it had done in the first, as the Panthers could not solve the Clippers defense early on. Of Lena-Winslow’s first 23 offensive possessions, 12 ended in turnovers, with 10 of those coming on Amboy steals.

“Everyone talks about movement on offense, but they move well on defense,” Panthers coach Dennis Huttenlocher said. “Anytime we passed the ball, they were moving in the passing lane, and they’re just great at anticipating. They’re long, and they know how to use their athleticism on defense. They’re tough to score against.”

That defense helped Amboy go on a 10-1 run in the first quarter. Donna hit a jumper, Powers added a layup, then a Powers steal led to a fast-break opportunity, with Jones cashing in on the other end. Steals by Donna and Jones on back-to-back Lena-Winslow possessions led to baskets by Payne and Powers to put Amboy ahead 12-5.

Lena-Winslow turned the ball over 23 times in the game, including seven times in the first quarter and 10 in the third. That led to 26 points off turnovers for the Clippers.

“We played better defense in that [third] quarter,” Amboy coach Mike McCracken said, “and when we get out and play defense, that creates our offense, and we’re a lot better. We had a couple spurts, we had one in the first quarter, where we played pretty good defense.”

Payne and Althaus had four steals in the game, and Jones added three. More than once, a Le-Win player would try to lob a pass over the head of a Clipper, only for that Amboy player to leap up and grab it.

“We were getting our hands on a lot of balls,” Powers said. “They were throwing nice easy ones, and Abi and I worked very hard at the top to get those passes into our posts, and we ran very hard to get those easy buckets.”

Lena-Winslow (12-7) took better care of the ball in the second quarter, scoring on four of its last five possessions to cut a 20-11 deficit into a 24-20 deficit at the half. Sadie Mowery hit a basket in the lane, Ashlyn Almasy hit a jumper, Grace Fox added a basket in the lane, and Keirra Schulz beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer.

Amboy’s offense had gone into a bit of a lull. After Payne’s basket made it 20-11 early in the second, the Clippers missed their next three shots from the field and turned the ball over twice before a jumper from Althaus broke the dry spell with 1:44 to go in the half. She would add another soon after.

Amboy hit another offensive lull in the fourth quarter, scoring four points while turning the ball over five times and missing all five shots it attempted from the field.

“The first half we just didn’t shoot the ball very well, fourth quarter, we just didn’t do what we needed to do,” McCracken said. “We’re just a little off. We’ve played against about three triangle-and-twos, and this one is a good one, but we always made the shots before, and when you don’t make the open shots against a triangle-and-two, then you struggle.”

Powers led a balanced Amboy attack with 14 points, shooting 5-for-9 from the field. Payne added 10 points, Jones had eight points and eight rebounds, and Donna and Althaus each scored six.

Cierra Mapes led Le-Win with 11 points. Cheyenne Mapes added nine, much of that in the fourth quarter off of runners in the lane.

Girls basketball

Amboy Holiday Tournament championship

Amboy 51, Lena-Winslow 36

Star of the game: Mallory Powers, Amboy, 14 points

Key performers: Cierra Mapes, Lena-Winslow, 11 points, 9 rebounds; Abi Payne, Amboy, 10 points, 4 steals; Gabby Jones, Amboy, 8 points, 8 rebounds

Up next: Eastland at Amboy, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7