Spencer girls hang close for much of game against Loyal

A rapidly improving Spencer girls basketball team hung around with Loyal for a good part of the teams’ Eastern Cloverbelt Conference game in Loyal on Dec. 22. A 13-2 Loyal run midway through the second half put any end to the Rockets’ hopes of a big early-season upset.

The Greyhounds outscored Spencer 26-15 over the game’s final 14 minutes on their way to the 58-42. win. Savannah Schley and Katlyn Lindner accounted for well over half of Loyal’s total offense on the night and each hit key hoops in the second-half surge that put some distance between the sides.

Spencer took an 11-10 lead six minutes into the game on a Heavyn Kind 3-pointer before two Kayla Bremmer inside scores and a Schley basket helped Loyal extend to an 18-11 lead. Becca Mlsna scored twice late in the half as Spencer made it a 21-15 game at the break.

Loyal still could not pull away early in the second half. The Greyhounds pushed the lead to 28-17 on a Lindner 3-pointer, but Spencer answered with a 10-4 run over the next 2 /1/2 minutes that made it a 5-point game with 14:33 left. Starting with a Schley score and then another from Kaylee Brecht, Loyal then pieced together the 13-2 run that ran the score to 45-29 with 9:04 to go.

Loyal hit 45 percent of its shots (24-53) in the game and was true on three of 12 attempts from 3-point range.

Spencer hit just 26 percent (14-55) overall from the floor and was 4-13 on 3-pointers. The Rockets were 10-16 at the line and Loyal was 7-9.

Schley paced all scorers with 19 points as she was 8-12 from the field. Lindner added 16 points and hit a pair of 3-pointers.

Kind scored 17 points for Spencer as she hit three times from long range. Mlsna scored 10 points and Amber Becker added nine.