Senior Alyssa Bridge (22) is blocked by Olivia Felts (34) of Williamsville. Bridge scored 8 points on Senior Night for the Lady Toppers. Felts had 10 points for the winning Williamsville Lady Bullets.
 

Lady Toppers fall to the Lady Bullets 53-40

[February 02, 2016]  The Mount Pulaski Lady Toppers could not catch the speeding Lady Bullets on Senior Night.

Coach Eric Leever’s team hustled all night long on the court Monday night and despite a great effort, his squad just could not manage to catch the “faster than a speeding bullet” Lady Bullets of Williamsville. “We knew what we had to stop and I don’t think we did a good job on dribble penetration tonight,” said Leever following the game. "We knew that was kind of their go-to.”

The Bullets go-to being the twins Farah and Marah AbuTayeh who combined for 36 of Williamsville’s points. It would be Marah to start the scoring for the Lady Bullets followed by sister Farah to put Williamsville out in front early 4-0.

A nice bank shot from senior Elizabeth Siebert and a beautiful assist from senior Alyssa Bridge to Skylar Hayes tied the game with 3:55 on the clock. But Marah quickly gave Williamsville the lead back by swishing a three, 7-4 the score.

Mount Pulaski’s Hayes then hit a sweet jumper in the lane to close the gap. Following a miss by the Lady Bullets, Mount Pulaski moved the ball down the court quickly and executed some great ball movement. A slick pass from Hayes to Bridge resulted in the senior being ready and set to swish a three to put Mount Pulaski in the lead, 9-7 as the crowd erupted with 1:35 on the scoreboard.

But a gasp and a hush fell over the Mount Pulaski crowd in the final seconds of the quarter as Farah dribbled the ball across the half-court line, kind of hesitated for a second and then decided to launch the ball from about 24 feet. Her bank shot fell through the net just as the buzzer sounded and gave the Lady Bullets the 10-9 lead going into the break.

Overheard from the crowd was “Apparently the banks are open late at night.” Great shot by the 5’5 senior though.

The shot might have hushed the Lady Toppers crowd a bit but not the players. The ladies came out focused in the second quarter and despite falling behind 15-9 quickly, they regrouped and began playing catch-up.

Senior BreAnna Rentmeister hit a jump shot in the lane and teammate Hailey Moore connected for a corner three to pull the team close, 16-17 at the 3:48 mark. Back-to-back buckets by Hayes kept the game within reach, with Mount Pulaski trailing 20-21 around the 2:00 mark.

But with around a minute to play Farah would steal the ball off the press and toss it in for two for the Lady Bullets. Abbey Galusha sank a free throw for Williamsville in the final seconds to give the purple and gold team from Sangamon County the 24-20 lead at halftime.

At the start of the third quarter, Mount Pulaski was ready to play catch-up again. Bridge hit a three for the Lady Toppers but then the repetitive happened again. The Lady Bullets stole the ball off their phenomenal press and this time it was Maggie Sorenson with the layup. The Williamsville defense is really fantastic and their quickness resulted in another steal and basket by Marah to stretch the lead 30-24 around the 4:00 mark.

Once these Lady Bullets get on a roll they are hard to stop. Marah and Farah scored a couple more quick baskets to give Williamsville a ten-point lead, 34-24 with 2:30 left to play in the third quarter.

Hayes breathed a little life into the Mount Pulaski offense with her three but it would be Marah taking the Lady Toppers breath away yet again with her move thru the lane that resulted in a clean look at the basket and an easy two points. Williamsville’s lead at this point was 36-27.

Four free throws by Hayes would complete the Mount Pulaski scoring in the third quarter and with that the Lady Toppers were down 31-38 with only eight more minutes left to play.

Same story in the fourth quarter, as Leever’s squad does not give up, but just kept falling short in their tremendous effort. Two free throws by Bridge and a jumper that rolled in for Rentmeister had Mount Pulaski still in the contest around the 6:00 mark, trailing only 35-40.

Williamsville ran off six straight points though that Mount Pulaski just was not able to recover from. Despite a couple more fourth quarter points from Rentmeister, the Lady Bullets went on to victory, outscoring Mount Pulaski 13-5 in the last six minutes of play.

The final score was 53-40 in favor of the Lady Bullets, who improved to 20-8 on the season.

Leever, whose team fell to 13-12 on the season, summed things up best, “I am not upset with the loss tonight. I don’t think the score reflects probably how close it could have been. I think our transition game is our go-to and we didn’t have a transition game tonight. We probably could have had six, eight and even ten points in transition and we just didn’t tonight.”

Leever was still not at all disappointed in his team’s performance, "All in all, the last two games I thought we probably played our two best games of the season so I guess if we are gonna peak at the end of the year that’s good. The post season is right around the corner.”

The Lady Toppers have one more regular season game Thursday night at Illini Central and then the Lady Toppers meet those Lady Cougars again in the regional tournament that starts Monday night in Lewistown.

Meanwhile on this night for the winning Lady Bullets, Marah AbuTayeh had 22 points and Farah AbuTayeh had 14 points. Olivia Felts also hit double-figures with 10 points for Williamsville.

Skylar Hayes led the Lady Toppers with 18 points.
In the Junior Varsity contest, Williamsville pulled ahead in the fourth quarter to win 46-32 in that contest too.

Lady Toppers Varsity scoring

Skylar Hayes 18
BreAnna Rentmeister 9
Alyssa Bridge 8
Hailey Moore 3
Elizabeth Siebert 2

Lady Bullets Varsity scoring

Marah AbuTayeh 22
Farah AbuTayeh 14
Olivia Felts 10
Abbey Galusha 5
Maggie Sorenson 2

Lady Toppers Junior Varsity scoring

Shelby Bailey 8
Callie Anderson 6
Morgan May 6
Fikirte Mott 5
Skylar Hayes 3
Tosha Boyer 2
Madison Thomas 2

Lady Bullets Junior Varsity scoring

Alexis Combs 10
Mackenzie McCormick 10
Emma Walbert 8
Alyssa Hergert 6
Lily Doneghue 5
Maggie Zibutis 3
Nasi Bode 2
Katelyn Womack 2

[Teena Lowery]