Aurora girls take the fight to Beatrice on home floor

In its previous two matchups with Beatrice, the Lady Orange beat the Huskies by an average of 27 points.
Saturday afternoon, however, it was a one-point game midway through the fourth quarter. 
Despite the Huskies keeping pace, Beatrice made a couple key plays down the stretch to pick up a 39-31 win in Aurora. 
Aurora coach Kelly Krueger was impressed with her team’s effort Saturday despite the loss, hanging right with a team that’s had a lot of success over the past couple seasons.
“Our girls put up quite a fight against Beatrice,” she started. “It was a very physical game on both ends of the court, but I liked the way we competed. I wish I would have made a few of our adjustments earlier in the game, but the girls worked hard to carry out our game plan and I feel like that’s what slowed them down from making big runs.”
The first quarter was a pendulum swing that included seven lead changes over the opening eight minutes. 
Kendal Wineteer provided Aurora’s first lead with three points the hard way before Maddie Ramaekers put Aurora back out front, 5-4.
Kaitlyn Staehr gave the Huskies the lead once more off the bench with a three-pointer, but Beatrice answered with its own just before quarter’s end, giving the Orange a 10-8 lead.
Neither team found any offensive rhythm in the second quarter, combining for just four points as Beatrice led 12-10 at half.
Aurora’s only points came at the free throw line on two Ramaekers foul shots with 37 seconds left in the half.
Coming out of the break, it was Beatrice that seized control, going on a quick 9-2 run to extend its lead, 21-12.
Aurora began to chip away at things with a Hailey Hoff three before a Staehr bucket and Ramaekers hoop and foul, trailing 25-19 after three quarters.
The run for Aurora continued into the fourth quarter, turning into a 10-3 spurt, cutting the Beatrice lead to 28-27 with 4:03 left.
The biggest takeaway for Krueger coming out of the Beatrice game was how her team isn’t going to turn in early, but rather keep swinging.
“What I liked most was that it shows that they aren’t going down without a fight,” she said. “They worked hard to defend their home court -- we obviously came up short, but they weren’t going to just let Beatrice have it easy. If we get a few more of our bunny shots to fall, it’s a different outcome.”
Kenna Merrihew scored on back-to-back possessions before Staehr and Hoff added two more, making it anyone’s ball game.
After one of the best games of her career against Lakeview two days prior, Krueger noted her work in the practice gym is paying off with leaps and bounds.
“Kenna has been doing a nice job of working to rebound and finish around the rim,” Krueger said. “She is such a coachable kid and whatever we ask of her, she takes that to heart and works to get better at it. We’ve been wanting to get better at finishing around the rim lately, and she has done a nice job of finding ways to do that.”
On Beatrice’s next possession, the visitors answered with a big three-pointer before Aurora missed its next three shots. Beatrice added another jumper at the 2:08 mark to lead 33-27.
Merrihew drilled a third shot in the paint to get within four, but Beatrice added another triple with 1:05 left to give itself a seven-point cushion.
The Lady Orange held on with three shots from the free throw line to escape with the victory.
Staehr paced Aurora off the bench with nine points to go along with seven rebounds. Both Merrihew and Ramaekers had six points and seven rebounds. 
The Huskies were without one of its starters, senior Adi Fahrnbruch, who missed both the Beatrice and Lakeview games with an illness. 
Aurora won both the second chance points battle (11-2) and points in the paint (18-14), but Beatrice’s six three-pointers were a factor. 
“One thing that has me excited is how hard this group competes,” Krueger said. “Through four games, they’ve shown me that they are going to put up a fight, no matter what. I’m proud of how hard this group plays, and look forward to seeing it pay off.”

Aurora 52, Lakeview 24
The Lady Huskies picked up its second win of the season in dominant fashion, defeating Columbus Lakeview 52-24 on the road Thursday. 
It was the Merrihew show down low, matching a career high in points with 16 while adding 10 rebounds for a double-double and two blocks.
Aurora held Lakeview to a single free throw in the opening quarter before taking an 18-4 lead at the half and exploding for 23 third quarter points.
“One big positive is that we got a lot of girls in the scoring column,” Krueger mentioned. “It was great to see the ball go through the hoop. Another big positive was our defense. Lakeview loves to shoot threes and they can do some damage when they are hot from behind the arc. For our defense to not allow them to get going, that definitely helped.”
The Lady Huskies shot 40 percent from the field and was perfect from the charity stripe. Aurora scored 23 points off turnovers, 19 second chance points and 32 of those points came in the paint. 
It’s rivalry weekend for Aurora just before the holiday break as the Huskies travel to York Friday before hosting Northwest Saturday afternoon.
“I always look forward to this week,” Krueger noted. “Rivalry week is a tough one, but it will be a good measuring stick for us. We need to take what we’ve learned through four games and use this upcoming week of practice to prepare the best we can for two competitive games. We’re looking forward to the challenges.”

Aurora:    8      2         9      12      --   31
Beatrice: 10     2        13     14      --   39
AURORA: Staehr, 9; Merrihew, 6; Ramaekers, 6; Hoff, 5; Wineteer, 5.

Aurora:     10    8         23     11      --   52
Lakeview: 1      3        14      6      --   24
AURORA: Merrihew, 16; Staehr, 8; Hoff, 7; James, 6; Wineteer, 5; Wieseler, 4; Ramaekers, 4; Janda, 2.