Seniors have say in LHS girls’ victory

Making the start on Senior Night, Lawrence High seniors Emma Bentzinger, Alexis Boyd and Gracie Reinsch helped stake the Lions to an early first-quarter lead, and the LHS defense slammed the door during a scrappy 48-42 victory over Shawnee Mission East on Tuesday at LHS.

The three LHS seniors combined to score just four points, but each contributed elsewhere on the stat sheet. Reinsch grabbed five boards, Bentzinger dished an assist, and Boyd grabbed two rebounds to get the Lions off to a strong start.

“It was really fun getting everybody’s intensity up and getting a chance to start,” Reinsch said.

Added LHS coach Jeff Dickson: “That was a great opportunity for them, and those girls mean a lot to our program. They stuck it out for four years, and you rarely see bad seniors because it takes a lot of character to go through this for four years. They did a great job, and I told ’em before the game they didn’t have to do anything special. Just run our stuff and play the way we need to play.”

Of course, that group, which was honored with 13 other basketball and spirit-squad seniors between the boys and girls games, could not have won the game by itself, and thanks to big nights from forwards E’Lease Stafford and Chisom Ajekwu, they did not have to.

Stafford led all scorers with 21 points on 9-of-19 shooting, including makes on her first three attempts and two three-pointers.

Ajekwu chipped in 10 points and five rebounds and also swatted away five SME shot attempts.

“I really liked the way the kids responded,” Dickson said. “In the past, when somebody who maybe shouldn’t be playing with us would hang around, we would panic. But we didn’t do that tonight. And then when we made that run in the fourth quarter, I think they started to panic a little, and that was to our advantage.”

The middle two quarters were at the least a little sloppy for the Lions, who improved to 10-9 and will close out the regular season Friday at Free State. Growing confidence with every possession, SM East out-hustled the Lions for most of the second and third quarters and took a four-point lead (35-31) into the final quarter.

From there, the Lions significantly stepped up their defense, getting big contributions from some of their smallest players, and outscored the Lancers 17-7 in the decisive fourth.

Freshman guard Hannah Stewart, who stands 5-foot-2, got things started with two rebounds and two points in the opening minute of the fourth, and that sparked a 10-0 LHS run that turned a 35-31 deficit into a 41-35 lead.

Stewart added a pair of steals; Skylar Drum, 5-7, had a block and a couple of free throws; and Olivia Lemus, 5-3, scored an early bucket and sealed the victory with a few late free throws.

“Since it was Senior Night, we just thought we should step it up and give all we had,” Stafford said.

SM EAST (42)

Josie Clough 1-8 2-2 5, Kyle Haverty 4-13 2-2 12, Jordan Yowell 5-9 0-0 11, Sofia Stechschulte 3-7 0-0 8, Emma Linscott 1-8 1-4 3, Lilly Flint 1-2 0-0 3, Quincy Bair 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-47 5-8 42.

LAWRENCE (48)

Skylar Drum 0-3 2-2 2, Emma Bentzinger 0-0 0-0 0, Gracie Reinsch 1-3 0-0 2, E’Lease Stafford 9-19 1-5 21, Alexis Boyd 1-1 0-0 2, Chisom Ajekwu 5-10 0-2 10, Hannah Stewart 1-2 1-2 3, Olivia Lemus 2-6 3-5 8, Talima Harjo 0-1 0-0 0, Leslie Ostronic 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-45 7-15 48.

SM East 10 17 8 7 — 42

Lawrence 13 10 8 17 — 48

Three-point goals: LHS 3-11 (Stafford 2, Lemus 1); SME 7-18 (Stechschulte 2, Haverty 2, Clough 1, Yowell 1, Flint 1). Turnovers: LHS 4, SME 5.