Scouting Reports: Lady Bears Sweep New Covenant Tournament

By Jason Hoekema / jason@douglascountyherald.com

SPRINGFIELD – The Ava Lady Bears made a statement of their own on the road at the New Covenant Academy Tournament where they took first place.

The ladies’ roster took the title with a perfect, 3-0, record with wins over NCA, Stoutland, and a final win over Billings scoring 53-40, 47-39, and 56-35 respectively. 

NCA

Hannah Evans led in scoring with 18 points from just two buckets and two long balls for three. Eight of her points were from fouls drawn and she shot .800 from the line.

Olivia Gastineau seconded the double digits with 12 points of her own from three buckets and six shots made at the charity stripe where she shot .545.

Also, in double digits was Claire Fossett who contributed for ten points with two from downtown, one in the lane and another two from the line where she shot perfectly at 1.000.

Eden Little scored six points, Emaly Keyes another six, and Lexie Gastineau got inside for two.

Stoutland

Scoring was balanced across the board with Eden Little running the lane for four buckets and three more on fouls drawn for 11 total game points. 

Olivia Gastineau worked for ten points with one inside, another outside and three singles from Stoutland’s charity. 

Baylan Alexander had a great night with three from the perimeter for nine points and Claire Fossett chipped in four points. Emaly Keyes with three and Sam Keyes two to make the total 47 over Stoutland in Game 2. 

At the free throw line, the Lady Bears were just shy of .500, shooting a team-collective .471 and missing out on nine points. 

Billings

Eden Little came up big for the Lady Bears with 15 points in the final round of competition. With six buckets and another three while shooting .600 from the stripe. 

Second in scoring at the game was Hannah Evans with 12 points of her own from four buckets and one shot from outside. Evans only drew one shooting foul, an and-one which she put through the hoop. 

Olivia Gastinueau also put in the work for 12 points with six successful shots from inside while Emaly Keyes worked her magic from outside with two in the net plus another shot from inside for eight points. 

Also scoring was Sara Mendel with two, Claire Fossett with four, Lexie Gastineau with another two, and Keeley Akers drawing fouls for one point.

The team shot a collective .556 from the stripe, scoring a total of 56 in-game points. 

Season, so far

With the tournament win the Lady Bears now have a season-total 261 points through five games. That number comes from 82 twos, 19 threes, and 40 from the stripe where the team is shooting at .571.

Leading in those numbers is Claire Fossett with 20 twos, Olivia Gastineau with 15, and Hannah Evans with 15. From outside Emaly Keyes leads with eight long balls followed by Evans with six. 

From the stripe Hannah Evans leads the team shooting at .810 this season for 17 points. 

Coming up

At the time of this publication, the Lady Bears have completed the 2019 segment of their season and will pick up competition on January with a long run at home starting against Mountain Grove on January 6, 2020 followed by another game the next day on the home maple against Forsyth then Mansfield on the 9th. 

A special thanks to head coach Nathan Houk for providing scorebook data from the games the Herald could not attend.