MANNHEIM, Germany – The Patch Lady Panthers rode everything All-Europe junior guard Nelley Loney had to give Friday night to a 41-31 European Division I semifinal victory over the previously unbeaten defending D-I champion Wiesbaden Lady Warriors.Loney scored 30 points and put her personal stamp on Patch’s coup de grace in the game’s final 2 minutes, 38 seconds - stealing the ball three times for lay-ups and adding a free throw after Wiesbaden - which trailed 21-14 at halftime, had cuts its deficit to 34-29.The victory ended a Wiesbaden winning streak Lady Warriors coach Jim Campbell said had reached 33 games before Friday’s shocker.Loney won her personal duel of the All-Europeans, outscoring Wiesbaden’s All-Europe sisters LeAndra Thomas (17 points) and LeAmber Thomas (12) by a single point.To hear Loney tell it, however, she was just a cog in Patch’s wheel.“We all worked together,” she said. “We were in each other’s minds the whole time tonight.”What wasn’t in Patch’s minds, Loney said, were Wiesbaden’s Thomas sisters.“We just played our game,” she said. “We didn’t worry about them.”Wiesbaden tried assigning LeAndra Thomas or fellow senior Kelly Colbert to guard the quicksilver Loney, but without success on this day.“They were just a step quicker than we were today,” Campbell said. “We haven’t played anyone that fast this season.”Meghan Smith scored the other two points for Wiesbaden, which is to face familiar foe Ramstein in Saturday’s third-place game, scheduled for 12:45 p.m. at Sullivan Barracks.Bianca Lopez and Michelle Morehead scored four points each for Patch, which earned a rematch in Saturday’s 6 p.m. D-I title game against Vilseck’s Lady Falcons.Vilseck, which lost two games by double-digit margins to Patch during the Region III season, stunned the Lady Panthers, 48-37, in a pool game Thursday morning. Vilseck continued its unbeaten run here with a 49-45 victory Friday night over Ramstein in the other D-I semifinal.

Migrated