By Cody Morris, Tailgate TV
The Butler Lady Bears traveled to Appleton City for some basketball action. Butler came into the contest fresh off a championship run at the Warsaw tournament, and a victory last night at Archie.
The Bears began the night with possession after winning the opening tip, following a couple of quick turnovers on each end of the court, Kiersten Dubray made it to the charity stripe and sunk a free throw to start all scoring and give the Bears an opening 1-0 lead. After a stretch of stagnate offense, Kiersten went back to the line, again going 1 of 2 before Park would open the basket open the basket for the Bulldogs and spark a 7-0 Appleton run. Dubray, the Kylee would narrow the gap with a post bucket, Appleton still lead 7-6. Gabby Carmichael and Brownsberger traded buckets before Kiersten went back to the line and sunk one more free throw to knot the contest up at 9 a piece. At the end of the opening period, Park grabbed a put-back basket to give the Lady Bulldogs an 11-9 lead after 8 minutes.
Out of the quarter break, Appleton had possession and converted on a basket from deep off the hands of Brownsberger. Carmichael responded with a shot from range herself, sparking a 5-0 Bears run. Brownsberger put a stop to the Bears momentum with her third triple of the evening. On the Bears end, Kiersten earned yet another trip to the line where she was able to sink both shots and cut the Appleton lead to just 1 point. Brownsberger drilled her fourth three pointer of the half, leading to a 9-3 Bulldogs run to end the half. Going into the locker room the Bears found themselves trailing 27-20.
Out of the intermission, each squad struggled to find any rhythm, until Park knocked down an awkward jumper, leading to some back-and-forth action that saw the Bulldogs stretch their lead to 12. Trailing 35-23, the Bears coaching staff was forced to use a time-out in an attempt to get the Lady Bears back on track. Following the water break, Kylee was able to force a turnover and then record a bucket for the Bears, showing signs of life for Butler. However, Brownsberger would quickly silence the Bears fans in attendance as she drilled her 5th deep ball of the game and prompting a 9-2 Appleton run to close out the quarter.
As the fourth and final quarter began, the Bears found themselves with a lot of ground to make up as the Bulldogs had built themselves a comfortable 46-27 lead. The fourth began with Stephan knocking down a shot from distance, and the Bulldogs never looked back. At the final whistle the Bears fell to the Bulldogs 55-34.
Baylor Brownsberger led all scoring with a massive 26 points, going 5 of 6 from range and grabbing 5 boards. LeeAnna Park also ended her night in double figures with 14 points and 9 rebounds.
The Bears were led by Carmichael with 10 points.
photo by Erin Dubray
