Lady Lions claim third straight sectional title

The Rushville Lady Lions can have a down year, finishing the regular season with a rare losing record (11-13) and still be one of the top teams in the EIAC. They proved that last night by winning their 34th sectional championship with a nine-point win over the Lawrenceburg Lady Tigers. This is coach Melissa Marlow’s 13th sectional title and the third in row for RCHS. Lawrenceburg held with Rushville and even led at halftime, but the Lady Lions used the third quarter to take the lead, and the fourth quarter to go up by 10 put it in cruise control and earn the victory. Rushville is now 14-13 on the season and will take on #6 Corydon Central (24-2) next Saturday at 4pm in Charlestown. The Lady Tigers finished the season with a record of 12-13, the first losing season since 2015-16 for Lawrenceburg.

The Lady Tigers got early baskets from senior Lizzie Redar and Kamryn Ferreira to go up 4-0 to start the game. Rushville got on the board with a three from Belle Gossett, then Natalie Knigga knocked down two freebies and hit a jumper giving the Lady Tigers an 8-3 lead. The squads swapped three-pointers with Leonie Boyer knocking down Rushville’s and Redar hitting Lawrenceburg’s. A 7-0 run for the Lady Lions with Briley Munchel, Gossett, and Boyer all scoring put them up by four-points. Aubree LaBazzo scored pulling it back to a two-point contest to close out the first quarter. Rushville led after the first frame 15-13. The second quarter was a defensive battle with the Lawrenceburg offense doing the only scoring. Knigga scored five of the eight Lady Tiger points in the period to go with a Redar three-point basket, all while shutting down Rushville’s offense and holding them scoreless through the first seven minutes of the period. Lawrenceburg had a six-point lead with under a minute remaining in the half and Boyer was finally able get a basket to fall in for Rushville and the score at the half was Lawrenceburg 21 Rushville 17. After a combined 10 points in the second quarter the teams tallied 20-points together in the first half of the third period. Knigga started the scoring off for LHS, Munchel and Boyer scored for RCHS, Knigga and Redar scored for the Lady Tigers and Gossett hit a jumper for Rushville to make it a three-point game with the Lady Tigers still holding the slim lead. Boyer scored for Rushville and LaBazzo hit a deep ball to make it 30-26 in Lawrenceburg’s favor. Munchel and Gossett put up the next eight-points for the Lady Lions and they had their first lead since the beginning of the second period. Knigga scored again for the Lady Tigers before Munchel hit the last shot of the quarter, a three ball that put RCHS in the lead by five, it was 37-32 after three quarters. Rushville added another 20-points in the final quarter with Munchel scoring 10 of those, Gracie Buzzard, and Kylee Herbert both added four-points each in the frame. Lawrenceburg tallied 16-points in the fourth quarter with Brooklyn Craig hitting twice from deep, and LaBazzo and Knigga each adding four-points in the period. The final score was Rushville 57 Lawrenceburg 48.

         1   2   3   4   F

Unofficial Scoring
Rushville– Munchel 23, Boyer 13, Gossett 10, Herbert 7, Buzzard 4
Lawrenceburg– Knigga 19, Redar 12, LaBazzo 9, Craig 6, Ferreira 2