By: Jade Edwards

Every year, the Bellbrook Women’s Basketball team hosts a scrimmage for the purpose of raising money to further breast cancer research.  The Pink Game always brings in a large crowd all sporting pink to support the cause. At $5 per ticket, quite a lot is donated, and survivors present at the game are given pink roses to celebrate their fight.  With all the uplifting thoughts and great atmosphere, we can only hope that Bellbrook can pull off a win to tie up the night in a pretty pink bow, but that was not the case this year against the Waynesville Spartans.

The Lady Eagles are led by Coach Jason Tincher and senior captains Dani Westbrock, Olivia Greathouse, Maren Freudenschuss, and Brook Tincher.  The starters were Westbrock, Greathouse, Freudenschuss, Bailey Zerby, and Maria Mescher. The player who stood out during the game, although she was not a starter, was freshman Kendall Knisley. With nine points, she was the leading scorer, closely followed by Freudenschuss and Mescher with eight points each.

Throughout the game, there were over three dozen fouls, but while Waynesville was able to capitalize off of their free-throw opportunities, Bellbrook struggled to gain those points.  The Spartans were also able to benefit from many three-pointers. It was obvious that they were skilled at making shots outside the three-point line during their warm-up, and they used that skill to their advantage during the game by keeping a player out wide to get the ball to during opportune moments.  While Bellbrook defense allowed many of those wide shots, they defended the paint well and did not let much up the middle.

The Eagles started the game out strong with a quick 5-0 lead, but that was their only lead throughout the entire game. By the end of the first quarter, the Spartans were ahead by two points. At half-time, Waynesville was up 26-21. Scoring seemed almost nonexistent during the third quarter for our Eagles, and at one point during the game, the Spartans had over a 10-point advantage.  Bellbrook tried to come back in the fourth quarter, but 49-41 Waynesville was the final score.