The Waukon Indians played in the Championship game of their Thanksgiving Holiday Tournament Saturday November 29th. Waukon came out victorious 74-65 in a very up and down hard battled game vs the Spring Grove Lions.
Waukon led early throughout the first quarter and into the second quarter by as many as ten points, but the scrappy and aggressive Lions would not go away. They used timely shooting and converted on Indian turnover to overtake Waukon and lead 35-32 at halftime.
Early in the third quarter things did not look good as Waukon was still having issues holding on to the basketball and Spring Grove built its lead to 9 at one point. A timely defensive scheme change by Waukon and a little upped intesity led to a nice run late in the third seeing the Indians take the lead back. The surge was lead by a good team effort on defense, and multiple buckets in transition. From that point on Waukon controlled the game leading by at least 5 the rest of the way.
Leading scorer on the night was Mary Halvorson with a big game scoring 27 points on 11-14 from the floor and 4-6 from the FT line. Halvorson also had 8 rebounds. Carissa Berger also had a huge game with 22 points, she went 6-8 from the FT line as well, she also led the team in steals with 4. Logan Hjerleid also got to double digits with 11, she chipped in with 5 boards and 4 assists.
Others contributing to the victory: Tatum Meyer who was in foul trouble in the second half still came up big as she hit 6-8 FT’s on the evening most of them late in the game. Jordon Reiser contributed at 3 different positions on the night at had 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Kristyna Herman had a tough night shooting but was the leading rebouder with 13, and also had two blocked shots on key defensive posessions. Keri Egan also gave huge minutes in the second half, coming up with 4 points, and 4 rebounds in limited action.
Keys to the game were FT shooting, Waukon was 26-37 for the game. Also just overall better team defense in the second half. Willingness to make the extra pass was also helpfull as Waukon had an assist for every two field goals scored on the night.
Making the All Tournament team from Waukon for the weekend was : Mary Halvorson, Logan Hjerleid, and Kristyna Herman.
Waukon opens conference play next week 12-5-08 @ Waverly. JV game will start at 6:15 with Varsity to follow. For the rest of the Girls Schedule clickhere .
Also for other details and box scores of the games check out http://www.neiowa.com/