Sunday, February 9, 2025

Beloit ladies run past Ulysses Tigers in Colby

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The Beloit Lady Trojans defeated the Ulysses Lady Tigers, 69-35, Thursday, January 23, to open the Orange & Black Classic in Colby.

With the win, Beloit improved to 7-3. The Lady Trojans advanced to face Colby in the semifinals on Friday. The Lady Eagles were 10-1.

On Thursday, senior Cassandra Thompson made a shot to give Beloit an early 2-0 lead. After two free throws by senior Olivia Wright, Thompson and senior Addison Budke each added a basket to push the edge to 8-0. 

Budke made a three-pointer, increasing it to 11-0, before Nayeli Romero answered with a trey to start the Lady Tigers’ scoring.

The Lady Trojans responded with the next six points before Ulysses closed the opening quarter with the last six points. Beloit led, 17-9, going to the second.

Thompson opened the second with a basket to push the edge to 19-9. Budke scored four of the next eight points to close the 10-0 run that increased the advantage to 27-9.

After the Lady Tigers scored four of the next five points, Beloit outscored Ulysses 6-3 to lead, 34-16, at intermission.

Budke opened the third quarter with a bucket before Thompson followed with the next four points to push the lead to 40-16.

After a Ulysses basket, Beloit used a 10-0 spurt to take a 34-point lead. The Lady Tigers added a basket and free throw to close the third. Beloit led, 52-21, headed to the fourth.

The Lady Trojans opened the final frame, which featured a running clock, with a 12-0 run to push the lead to 64-21.

Led by multiple baskets by Clarissa Sianuqui, Ulysses outscored Beloit 14-5 to close the contest. 

Beloit’s success is typically sparked by its defense; this was the first time the team surpassed 60 points since late last January against Republic County.

Beloit Head Coach Keith Kresin was pleased with his team’s offense. 

“I thought our guards did a good job against their pressure,” he said. “We never got beat in transition.”

The coach said that this game was a nice tune-up for the team’s semifinal matchup against Colby.

“We’re up to the challenge,” Kresin said. “We got to keep our mistakes to a minumum to have a chance in the game.”

Cassandra Thompson led the Beloit ladies on the boards, scoring 22 points followed by Reagan Cheney with 14 and Addison Budke 11. Autumn Lorenz scored 6 points; Emma Rice, Samantha Thompson an Landry Litton 3 points each; Kolbee Bergmann, Olivia Wright and Azlin Pfantz 2 points each; McKenna Channell 1.