Fourth quarter comeback lifts Lady Tigers over Osborne

The Stockton Lady Tigers led for much of Friday night’s non-league contest against the Osborne Lady Bulldogs, but after falling behind early in the fourth quarter, it took a late comeback to lift the visiting Lady Tigers to a 55-51 victory. On the boys’ side, a barrage of treys from Osborne proved to be too much to overcome as the Tigers fell 81-69.

This week Stockton wrapped up its final two games of the regular season, hosting LaCrosse on Tuesday and traveling to TMP on Friday. Regional action will begin on Monday, February 24th and run through the 29th. The Tigers will be competing in the 1A Regional hosted by Rock Hills High School at Mankato, along with Almena-Northern Valley, Downs-Lakeside, Kensington-Thunder Ridge, Logan, Mankato-Rock Hills and Osborne.

Lady Tigers vs. Osborne

The Stockton Lady Tigers got off to a good start against Osborne, and led 11-8 at the 4:00 minute mark following two free throws by Chloe Plumer. Rhyann Brown’s shot just seconds later pulled the Lady Bulldogs within one, 11-10, but in the final three minutes of the period, Shae Griffin, Macy Odle and Olivia Dix combined for nine points to give Stockton a 20-12 lead going into the second quarter.

The Lady Tigers struggled to score for the first three minutes of the second period, with Dix’s shot on the inbounds play and a free throw a couple minutes later being their only points. Meanwhile the Osborne girls were able to fight their way back into it, tying the score at 23-all on two free throws by Trinity Lutters with 4:39 to go in the half. With 4:19 left in the second quarter, two more free throws by Lutters knotted the score at 25-25, but the Lady Tigers would outscore Osborne 10-0 over the next two and a half minutes to take their first double-digit lead of the game at 35-25. Scoring during that run were Odle, Dix, Griffin, Tatum Hamilton and Ellie Bellerive. At the intermission Stockton was still up 35-28.

Midway through the third quarter a basket by Hamilton made the score 41-34, Lady Tigers, but three minutes later Osborne led for the first time in the contest, 42-41 when Calie Wolters scored. Hamilton answered a few seconds later and Stockton would own a narrow 43-42 lead going into the final eight minutes.

In the first two minutes of the fourth period the Lady Bulldogs were able to regain a 47-43 advantage over Stockton. Dix scored to stop the 4-0 run by Osborne, making the score 47-45 in favor of the Lady Bulldogs. Lutters would then make a basket to put Osborne up 49-45, but Hamilton scored and followed that basket with a steal and a layup to tie the game at 49-49 with 4:12 remaining to be played.

A basket by Griffin a minute later gave the Lady Tigers their first lead of the fourth quarter at 51-49, but with 1:20 to go it was tied again at 51-all. Bellerive scored with 24 seconds left in the game to put Stockton up 53-51. The Lady Bulldogs then missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw with nine seconds remaining, and Griffin was sent to the line as time ran as time ran out. She was able to make both free throws to seal the 55-51 win and improve the Lady Tigers’ record to 7-11 on the season.

Shae Griffin had a gamehigh 20 points to lead the Stockton girls. Olivia Dix and Tatum Hamilton added 12 points each.

Osborne was led by Trinity Lutters with 18 points, with Rhyann Brown adding 14.

Tiger Boys vs. Osborne

Despite three Tigers scoring in double figures on Friday, Stockton wasn’t unable to overcome the 13 three-pointers made by Osborne, and ended up falling by the score of 81-69. With the loss the Tigers now own a record of 9-9 on the season.

For much of the first quarter Stockton was able to match the undefeated Bulldogs, with Troy Rogers’ jumper at the 1:26 mark making the score 16-15 in favor of Osborne. Others Tigers scoring early in the first were Ethan Means, Quinn Coffey and Josh Coleman. By the end of the period, however, the Bulldogs would own a 24-17 lead.

Stockton’s Gage Conyac scored very early in the second quarter to cut the difference to 24-19, but Steele Wolters answered for Osborne, draining his third three-pointer of the game. Over the next minute the Tigers gained some ground as Trevor Miller made a trey, and Means and Coleman scored to close the deficit to just one, 27-26, at the 6:05 mark of the second.

Between Means and Miller, the Tigers scored enough to stay close to Osborne for the remainder of the first half, and they went in at the intermission only trailing by four, 41-37.

At the 6:42 mark of the third period, Troy Rogers hit a shot to pull Stockton within two, 43-41, but from that point on the Bulldogs would slowly begin to pull away. At the midway point of the quarter the Tigers were down 52-45, but a couple minutes later Coleman hit a trey to get Stockton back within two, 52-50. Unfortunately that would be as close as they would get as Osborne outscored the Tigers 11-1 in the final two minutes of the quarter to lead 63-51 going into the fourth period.

The Bulldogs’ lead grew to as much as 18 points with two minutes left to play, but Stockton continued to fight back and was able to score 8 points to Osborne’s one in the final minute and a half, resulting in a final score of 81-69. Scoring for the Tigers during that time were Conyac, Means, Coleman and Cameron Lindsey.

Ethan Means led Stockton in scoring with 22 points. Josh Coleman and Trevor Miller added 16 and 14 points, respectively.

The Bulldogs were led by Steele Wolters’ game-high 34 points. Grady Wolters added 21 points on seven treys. Connor Goheen was also in double figures with 13.