Greyhound girls start with two victories

The Loyal girls basketball team opened its season with Eastern Cloverbelt Conference wins over Spencer and Marshfield Columbus while other early games were moved to later in the season schedule due to COVID-19.

The Greyhounds downed Spencer 61-40 on the road on Nov. 26 as Katlyn Lindner, Paige Smith and Savannah Schley combined for 44 points on the night. Spencer hung tough after falling behind 28-5 through the first 11 minutes to trail only 30-22 at the half. Loyal then put together a 27-10 sure in the second half to seal the win.

Lindner scored 16 points, Smith added 15 and Schley scored 13. Schley was 5-5 on free throws as the Greyhounds hit 14 of 21 as a team from the line.

Heavyn Kind scored 16 points to lead Spencer. Zalexis Mannigel added nine and Rebecca Mlsna scored eight.

Loyal was also on the road to play Columbus on Dec. 3. The Greyhound defense allowed only eight first-half points from the Dons and the team rolled to a 42-29 win. Loyal led 18-8 at the half and built the advantage to as many as 16 points in the second half.

Loyal got eight points apiece from Lindner, Schley and Kayla Bremmer while Smith and Abrial Kubista scored six each. Loyal got only six attempts from the free-throw line in the game and made half of them, while Columbus was at the stripe 25 times but could only convert nine.

Lindner hit two of the three 3-point shots she took in the game and Loyal was 3-9 as a team. The Dons found the mark on just two of their 16 attempts from 3-point range.

Jenna Kibbel scored 10 points to lead Columbus.