Sports
Europe girls basketball: Patch takes two from Bitburg
Stars and Stripes
January 9, 2005
Würzburg's Jennifer Snyder, left, and Ramstein's Kendra Lenoir battle for a loose ball during a DODDS high school basketball game Friday night in Ramstein, Germany. Ramstein won, 38-11. (Raymond T. Conway / S&S)
Würzburg's Jennifer Snyder, left, and Ramstein's Kendra Lenoir battle for a loose ball during a DODDS high school basketball game Friday night in Ramstein, Germany. Ramstein won, 38-11. (Raymond T. Conway / S&S)
Ramstein's Rebecca Tenuta is fouled from behind by Würzburg's Myaj Stewart during Friday night's game. (Raymond T. Conway / S&S)
Ramstein's Krissy Grosselin, right, looks to make a backdoor pass as Würzburg's Myaj Stewart defends during Friday night's game. (Raymond T. Conway / S&S)
The Patch girls couldn’t have picked a better time to win their first games of the season, a weekend sweep of four-time defending Division II champion Bitburg.
Patch, which lost its first three games of the season, defeated Bitburg 39-27 on Friday in a designated nonconference game and 42-21 in Saturday’s conference game on the Panthers’ home floor at Patch Barracks.
Nicole Anderson led the way on Friday with 24 points and nine rebounds. Kasy’e Lalau and Alexis McCroskey led the scoring on Saturday with 10 points each for the rebuilding Panthers.
“We’re all new this year,” said Patch coach Walter Fritz, who credited his volunteer assistant, Kevin McCroskey, for the team’s progress. “He really works well with them.”
Patch (1-1 in Division II) hosts Black Forest Academy and AFNORTH on Friday and BFA on Saturday. Bitburg (0-1 in league play) hosts Bamberg for nonconference games this weekend.
In other games of note on the first weekend of play following the holidays:
K-town stays unbeaten
At Kaiserslautern, Lynndsey Hyter scored 19 points as the Lady Raiders held off Ramstein 50-46 to improve to 4-0.
Three-time All-Europe guard Krissy Grosselin led Ramstein with 14 points, but the Lady Royals never emerged from a 21-12 halftime deficit and fell to 3-1.
More significant than the score was $1,700 raised for the American Red Cross’ tsunami relief fund. Kaiserslautern coach Corey Sullivan led the drive by pledging $5 for every point his team scored.
Next up for K-town is a Division I conference game at Wiesbaden on Saturday. Ramstein plays at Wiesbaden on Friday night and hosts SHAPE on Saturday.
Brussels, AFNORTH split
In home-and-home nonconference games on Friday and Saturday, Brussels of Division III and AFNORTH of Division II each collected a home victory.
Brussels won Friday’s game 31-23 behind the rebounding of Claris Bottesini and a second-quarter full-court press. Bottesini had nine points, nine rebounds and four steals.
On Saturday, Ashley Lewis broke the press and teamed with Whitney Pieterse to dominate the frontcourt in the third quarter of AFNORTH’s 38-26 victory.
Bottesini again scored nine points and grabbed nine rebounds, but she was controlled in the second half by AFNORTH’s Tauree Blankenship. Pieterse led all scorers with 17 points, while Blankenship added 11 steals to go with her nine points and nine rebounds.
AFNORTH will take a 1-4 overall mark into its conference-opening doubleheader against BFA and Patch at Patch on Friday night. The Lady Lions are scheduled to play at Hanau on Saturday. Brussels, also 1-4 overall, is scheduled to open its III-North schedule at Menwith Hill on Friday and Saturday.