Saturday afternoon heard on WRBI, Connersville fought off a fourth quarter comeback by Batesville to win 53-47 at The Dog Pound.
The EIAC contest saw the host Bulldogs enjoy an 11-7 lead after the first quarter and a 21-17 edge at halftime.
Through the first 16 minutes, Abbie Schwartz of CHS scored eight points and Alyson Peters of BHS scored seven.
In the third quarter trailing 25-20, the Spartan finished the period on an 18-3 run to go up 10, 38-28. Connersville’s Paige Dunaway led the charge with eight points in the stanza with six coming on a pair of three pointers.
Batesville got down by as many as a dozen in the fourth, but coach Bryan Helvie’s Bulldogs fought hard to cut the deficit to three, 50-47. Calley Kaiser’s eight points and two triples from Emma Weiler fueled the charge. However, CHS scored the game’s final three points to win by a half dozen, 53-47.
Connersville’s Sara Ruble hit all six of her charity tosses down the stretch to help secure the win and snap a three game losing streak against Batesville.
Ruble finished with 12 points. Dunaway led the Spartans with 15 and Schwartz had 14.
For the Bulldogs, Weiler led with 12 while both Peters and Kaiser netted 11 each. Weiler, Kaiser and Bre Wells combined for 20 rebounds. Weiler also had four steals. Sophie Gesell recorded three assists.
The turnover count was high for both teams. Batesville had 27 and Connersville had 20. The Spartans hit 55 percent from the field while the Bulldogs connected on 35 percent. But a bright spot for BHS was rebounding is it had a 31-19 advantage including a plus-10 edge on the offensive end.
Batesville won the JV game 33-17.
The Bulldog reserves got 11 points from Claire Saner and nine from Annie Negovetich.
Jacey Wilhelm led the Spartan JV with seven points.
We thank Batesville AD Bryan Helvie for the accommodations and hospitality. Thanks also to coach Helvie and Connersville coach Michelle Harter for their time in our pregame show.