Lady Pirates win one, drop three last week

By Gary Simmons, Sr.
ELKADER - The Lady Pirates played in a make-up game last Monday (January 31st) night against Central. Both teams got off to a slow start offensively and the game stayed close all the way but in the end Postville was able to claim the Upper Iowa Conference win 35-33. The loss kept the Warriors winless for the season.
The first quarter was low scoring for both teams as Postville managed 4 points while Central tallied 7 points. Postville begin to find the range in the second period as they produced 11 points to Central's 7, making the halftime lead 15-14 Postville.
The second half was played almost even and it looked for awhile like the Warriors would snap their 15 game losing streak as they outscored the Lady Pirates 11-8 in the third quarter to take a 25-23 advantage. In the fourth quarter Postville posted 12 points to Central Elkader's 8 points for a 35-33 come from behind win.
The Lady Pirates were led by Kaylee Zuercher with 9 points and Jessica Schultz with 8 points. Teammate Lexie Everman tossed in 7 points for Postville.
Three Lady Pirates, Jessica Schultz, Kaylee Zuercher, and Leah Lechtenberg, collected 8 rebounds each to lead the team.
Postville hit 6 of 17 from the free throw (35%) line and 13 of 31 from the floor (42%). Central Elkader hit 7 of 21 from the free throw (33%) line and 13 of 40 from the floor (33%)
POSTVILLE - The Lady Pirates played host to the Hawks of North Fayette last Tuesday (February 1) in another Upper Iowa Conference contest. The North Fayette Hawks came into the game winning 4 of their last 5 games while Postville has won 2 out of their last 5 contests. North Fayette would win this contest in a low scoring affair 41-16.
The Lady Pirates grabbed an early 11-8 first quarter lead but could only manage 3 points in the second quarter while the Hawks added 8 more points to their halftime total to take the lead 16-14 at the break.
In the third quarter Postville still found the points hard to come by as they collected 4 points to North Fayette's 15, giving the Hawks a 31-18 lead at the end of the third quarter.
The fourth and final period produced 8 points for the Lady Pirates as the Hawks scored 10 points to hand Postville a 15 point loss 41-26.
Postville's Jessica Schultz led the team in scoring with 13 points and rebounds with 8 for the game. Shauna Lechtenberg finished with 5 points and 7 boards for the Lady Pirates. Leah Lechtenberg had 4 points and teammates Lexie Everman and Kaylee Zuercher finished the scoring for the Pirates with 2 points apiece.
Postville hit 9 of 42 shots from the floor for 21% shooting while the Hawks hit 19 of 36 for 53%. The Lady Pirates made the most of their trips to the charity stripe hitting 7 of 8 for 87% while North Fayette hit 2 of 4 free throws for 50%.
MONONA - A slow first half for the Lady Pirates boiled into a pretty good contest against rival MFL MarMac last Friday night. Postville didn't score a basket until the 3:45 mark of the first quarter, giving the Bulldogs a 9-2 lead and by the end of the quarter trailed 13-5. Things picked up from there for the Lady Pirates as they slowly began to climb back into the game only to come up short at the end 45-33.
"We got off to a slow start but played one of our best games of the season without Heins in the lineup," commented Coach Daryl Schultz. "We played good defense, executed our offense, and played well enough to win but our slow offensive start hurt us."
MFL kept the press on in the second quarter causing Postville to turn the ball over time and again on their way to building a 23-14 halftime lead.
In the third quarter the Lady Pirates in the person of Kristin White put on a clinic of how to create turnovers and steal the ball as she accounted for five extra opportunities for Postville. Her play began to eat away at the Bulldogs lead, 25-16, 25-18, 25-21, and once down by nine points the Lady Pirates were back to within 4 points of the rival Bulldogs. Postville scored seven points to MFL's 4 points for a third quarter score of 29-21.
Postville was outscored by six points in the fourth quarter, 18-12 as the Lady Pirates were forced to foul giving the Bulldogs easy opportunities from the free throw line. The Bulldogs won 45-33.
Postville's Leah Lechtenberg led the Lady Pirates in scoring with 9 points. Teammate Kaylee Zuercher collected 8 points and 10 rebounds. Kristen White had 5 steals, 1 assist, 1 rebound, and 7 points in a gutsy performance for the Pirates.
Jessica Schultz led the Lady Pirates in rebounding with 13 boards and finished with 4 points. Kendra Kerr rounded out the scoring with 5 points and led the team in assists with three.
Postville had 42 attempts at the basket, hitting 13 for 31% while MFL had 45 attempts and made 18 for 40%. Postville hit 6 of 11 from the free throw line for 54% and the Bulldogs made 9 of 11 from the charity stripe for 82%.
POSTVILLE - Last year's 3A State Champion team the Waukon Indians (10-0, 18-0) came into Postville last Saturday night with a 45 game winning streak and ranked number one in the state. Postville (4-4, 10-7) struggling as of late with the loss of junior post player Brittany Heins, found themselves overmatched in a game that was over almost as soon as it began as Waukon pounded the Lady Pirates 70-30.
Waukon put on a tough full court press from the opening play to rattle the Lady Pirates. It worked as Postville committed turnover after turnover early leading to easy points for the Indians. Getting the ball inbounds became difficult for Postville as Waukon held a 25-2 lead after the first quarter.
Postville settled down some in the second quarter as Waukon rotated in a lot of players. The Lady Pirates begin to break the press but found the Indians man-to-man defense tough in their half court offensive sets. At the end of the first half Waukon held a commanding 44-10 advantage.
Things didn't get much better for the Lady Pirates as the Indians opened the second half with a 1-3-1 half court zone press. Getting in was no longer the problem; it was avoiding the trapping defense once the Lady Pirates got it over the half court stripe. Waukon created more turnovers scoring 21 points in the third quarter to Postville's 5 points.
With the game safely tucked away Coach Gene Klinge began to send in some seldom used players to finish the game for the Indians. Postville outscored Waukon in the final quarter 15 to 14 making the final score 70-30.
Postville made more points from the free throw line than they did from the floor. The Lady Pirates hit 16 of 21 free throws for 16 points (76%) and 7 of 29 from the floor for 14 points (24%). The Indians made 5-12 from the free throw line for 42% and hit 32 of 61 shoots from the floor for 52%.
The Lady Pirate's Kaylee Zuercher led the team in points with 8, all from the field, and 10 rebounds. Kristin White tossed in 6 points and snared 4 rebounds for Postville. The Indians Samantha Riser led the Indians in scoring with 33 points.
"We were overmatched tonight," Coach Daryl Schultz commented. "They showed tonight why they are state champions. It's hard to take something away from a game like this but our girls never quit and made the free throws to put some points on the board. We were on the floor with the best team in the state tonight."