Lady Wolverines defeat Ottawa Wallace 46-10 in back-to-back Eighth Grade Basketball State Championships
WLB ends the season a perfect 24-0 over Ottawa Wallace 28-1
 

[December 14, 2018] 

The Lady Wolverines have done it again. In pretty much a repeat from last week, WLB knocked off an undefeated Ottawa Wallace team in the state championship game. This time the setting was the Clinton Junior High School gymnasium and the final score was 46-10.

The Lady Wolverines came to play and Jenna Bowman wasted no time lighting the scoreboard up for her team. WLB won the opening tip and with a quick offensive rebound, Bowman tossed the ball through the net for the Lady Wolverines and the first two points were out of the way.

The thing is when these WLB girls start a game scoring first, they usually don't let up until they've already buried their opponent in the first quarter. For example, Thursday night it was all Bowman and Kloe Froebe in the scoring column in the first quarter. Bowman finished the quarter with 6 points and Froebe poured in 12 points, including a buzzer-beating three to end the first quarter.

Ottawa Wallace had an opportunity to score from the field in the first quarter and just kept missing. The Warriors were also 0-for-4 from the free throw line in the first quarter and had to settle for an 18-0 deficit after the first six minutes of play.

The only eighth grader on the WLB squad, Elly Martinez, made her first bucket early in the second quarter.

WLB continued to dominate the Warriors and ran the score to 25-0 before Kendall Lowery finally made a layup at the 2:29 mark for Ottawa Wallace.
 

Thirty-seconds later WLB's Froebe had the ball at the three-point line and she sank a record-breaking basket with just one toss. Her shot broke the state record for individual scoring in a tournament. The previous record of 73 points scored over a three-game Class 1A state tournament was held by Mount Pulaski's Skylar Hayes (2014). Froebe had 18 points in the game after she nailed her record-breaking shot, and she was no where near being done on this night. Just before the half, Gianna Leigh hit a field goal for Ottawa Wallace and with that basket the score was 33-4.

The Lady Wolverines continued much of the same in the second half. The defensive display put on by these young ladies is enough to rattle a high school team. On the offensive end, throw in the spectacular ball movement and the ability to score from anywhere on the court and combine that with just the flat-out intelligent basketball instincts that these girls possess and you've got a 45-10 lead at the end of three quarters.

Congratulations to the WLB Lady Wolverines Eighth Grade Class 1A State Champions

Elly Martinez holding the state championship trophy is the lone eighth-grader on the squad.

WLB Pride was out in full-force supporting the Lady Wolverines.

The Ottawa Wallace Warriors and their fans ~ an enthusiastic bunch of holiday-decorated kids who never stopped cheering and encouraging their players all night long.

Mia Clark, a fifth-grader, sank two free throws in the final seconds of the third quarter and she did so with the poise of Stephen Curry. Impressive to say the least. Another fifth-grader, Lily Holmes, sank a free throw in the fourth quarter to set the final in stone for WLB.

Final Score: West Lincoln-Broadwell 46 Ottawa Wallace 10

Kloe Froebe led WLB with 30 points. She finished the 2018 state tournament with a record-setting 86 points in three games.

Congratulations to the State Champion WLB Lady Wolverines!

Note: Sigel St. Michael's defeated Washington St. Patrick 34-24 to win the third place game.

Final scoring in the state championship game:
 

WLB 46	Ottawa Wallace 10
Kloe Froebe 30 Jenna Bowman 6 Elly Martinez 5 Mia Clark 2 Tori Geriets 1 Lily Holmes 1 Becca Heitzig 1	Kendall Lowery 4 Gianna Leigh 4 Grace Carroll 2

[Teena Lowery]