GIRLS CORNER CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT: Knights rally past East Mills for Corner tourney title

Fremont-Mills rallied from a double-digit deficit to get by East Mills 54-45 and win the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament championship Saturday in Malvern.

The Knights (12-3 overall, 7-1 in the conference), who avenged a 51-36 December loss to the same Wolverines (13-4 overall, 7-1 in the conference), trailed for much of the game – including a 11-point hole in the first half – before closing the fourth quarter on a 15-5 run to seal their first conference title since the 2023-2024 season.

“Just a lot of grit shown by our girls,” said Fremont-Mills coach Brett Weldon, whose team was playing in its fourth straight conference championship game. “They kept battling when things weren’t going their way and hung around until we could put a run together. We had multiple girls step up and make plays. Definitely took everyone to get it done.”

Lana Alley led three Knights double-figures with 17 points while adding 10 rebounds. Saige Mitchell chipped in 12 points and six rebounds and Brooklyn Weldon added 11 points, six rebounds and four steals

Caitlyn Crouse led East Mills with 14 points, Isabella Blanton contributed 11 points.

Semifinals

East Mills 43,

Sidney 37 2OTs

Ellie Hagen saved her best for last.

The East Mills guard did not score a point through regulation and the first overtime but scored the final six points of the game to help the Wolverines overcome Sidney 43-38 in a double overtime thriller in the Corner Conference Tournament semifinals Wednesday Malvern.

Hagen’s two three throws with 34.4 seconds to go in the second overtime made it a two-possession game. The Cowgirls didn’t get a shot off the rest of the way.

“She really stepped up when we needed her too,” said East Mills coach Lexi Moreno. “I just asked her to make one and she did that.”

It was the Wolverines that were in control early, taking a 23-16 lead into halftime before the Cowgirls rallied. Addyson Foster’s three-pointer with less than a minute to go in the third tied the score at 26-26 heading into the final frame.

It wouldn’t be Foster’s only clutch shot.

East Mills would gain the momentum back in the fourth, using a 7-0 run to take a 33-26 lead with 3:47 to go.

But, once again, Sidney would rally. They cut the lead back to 34-31 with 22.1 to go but the Wolverines would miss a pair of free throws that would have iced the game.

And Foster, once again, came up big. He three-pointer at the buzzer sent the game to the first overtime.

Each team would score just three points in the first of the OTs to send it to a second. 

It was in that final four-minute frame the Wolverines finally took control for good. Hagen’s runner with 3:34 to go made it 39-37. The Cowgirls would answer with a free throw, but Hagen would put them away, going 4-of-6 over the final 1:58 to secure the win. Sidney was held without a field goal in the second overtime.

“I think we’ve seen in different games there are times she hasn’t scored a lot and then there’s game where she does or someone else does,” Moreno said. “Ellie did a great job on defense, and she had a good game the other night. She always finds a way to contribute. A lot of these girls don’t care if they score. They pride themselves on rebounding or locking someone down on defense.”

With leading scorer Caitlyn Crouse bottled up by the Cowgirls’ box-and-one defense, East Mills needed every point it could manage in the defensive slugfest.

“She’s our high scorer so we had to have other players step up,” Moreno said. “They all can make shots. It took reminding them that they’re good scorers too, you can take a lane and go to the basket; if you’re open shoot it.”

All 12 of Crouse’s team-high points came in the first half. Ava Grindle added nine points, and nine rebounds and Isabella Blanton added seven points.

Foster led Sidney with 13 points.

The Wolverines (13-3 overall, 7-1 in the conference) will play for the school’s first ever Corner Conference Tournament title Friday against Fremont-Mills.

“We definitely want to be healthy,” Moreno said. “We have some sickness going around. I said after the game we didn’t come this far to not play well in the conference championship game. We have a young team and they’re excited to make school history, but we don’t have a lot of experience being in this game so we’re going to remind them to play within themselves and get a good game plan and stay focused.”

Fremont-Mills 57,

Bedford 35

Fremont-Mills relied on its relentless defense in a 57-35 win over Bedford in the Corner Conference Girls Basketball Tournament semifinals last Wednesday in Malvern.

The Knights’ aggressive man-to-man defense never allowed the Bulldogs (9-5) to get comfortable all game long.

“They had a good ball handler who is really shifty and tough to guard, and we knew it would be hard, but we wanted to make it tough for her bringing the ball up,” said Fremont-Mills coach Brett Weldon of Bulldog point guard Aniya Hardee. “I think we did a good job of that. We also helped really well on defense, and we closed out on their shooters. The pressure sort of took over there in the second half.”

With the win the Knights advanced to its fourth straight conference tournament final with a match up against East Mills in Bedford Friday night.

The Knights led 29-15 at the half against the Bulldogs. They ballooned that lead to 37-17 with a quick 8-2 run to open the third quarter. Bedford cut that lead back to 39-23 late in the third quarter but that is as close as they would get.

Brooklyn Weldon’s third three-pointer of the game gave Fremont-Mills their biggest lead of the game at 51-26 with 5:58 to go in the game.

The Knights’ offense wasn’t always on target against the Bulldogs – 36.4 percent shooting from the field including 5-of-29 from behind the arc – but got buckets when they needed, many in transition following turnovers.

“We have different girls who seem to shoot it well on different nights,” Weldon said. “If we all shoot it well on the same night, we might be dangerous there. But they were packing it in and daring us to shoot, and we hit a couple that did help spread their defense out. We also did a job turning our defense into offense.”

Weldon led the way with 21 points for Fremont-Mills. Reese Gute and Saige Mitchell added eight points each. Lana Alley added seven points and seven rebounds.

Delani Dalton led Bedford with nine points.

Quarterfinals

East Mills 67,

Hamburg 4

Top-seeded East Mills opened the Corner Conference Tournament with a dominating 67-4 victory over Hamburg in last Monday’s quarterfinals in in Malvern.

Caitlyn Crouse led four Wolverines in double-figures with 23 points. Jacey Vandenberg added a season-high 18) points and Ava Grindle chipped in 14 and Izzy Blanton 10.

Hayley Mullins and Emilea Barrett scored two points each for Hamburg.

Sidney 39,

Griswold 33

Sidney edged Griswold 39-33 in the Corner Conference girls basketball tournament quarterfinals last Monday in Malvern.

 Addyson Foster scored 10 points and Charli King, Alyssa Dowling and Czandrya Morgan added six points each.

 Brystol Wyman and Carsyn Adams scored nine points each for Griswold.

Bedford 50,

Stanton 43

Caroline Simmons scored a game-high 23 points to lead Bedford to a 50-43 win over Santon in Corner Conference Tournament quarterfinals in Bedford.

Cooper Stephens put in 15 points and Piper French 13 to lead Stanton.

Kaylynn Moore added 14 points for Bedford.

Fremont-Mills 68,

Essex 19

Three players scored in double-figures for Fremont-Mills in a 68-19 win over Essex in the Corner Conference girls basketball tournament quarterfinals last Monday.

Lana Alley led the Knights with 20 points. Brooklyn Weldon added 14 and Carlie Nuckolls 10.

Essex was led by Mariska Kirchert’s 10 points.