Adrian junior guard Jenna Honermann drives to the basket during the first half of Monday's girls' basketball game against Murray County Central in Adrian. Honermann scored 11 points to help the Dragons wrap up the Red Rock Conference championship with a 59-53 win over the Rebels.
By John Rittenhouse
Adrian's girls' basketball team locked up the Red Rock Conference championship when it topped Murray County Central 59-53 in a hard-fought game played in Adrian Monday.
Needing a win, or a Fulda loss, to earn an outright RRC title, the Dragons took matters into their own hands by outplaying the Rebels in the game's fourth quarter.
AHS trailed 38-36 entering the final eight minutes of play, when it outscored MCC 23-15 to win the game by six points.
The win gave Adrian a 15-1 record in league play. Fulda, which beat Hills-Beaver Creek 83-52 the same night, placed second in the RRC with a 14-2 mark.
TuesdayÕs tilt in Adrian was a tight one from beginning to end. Neither team sported more than a four-point lead in the game's first three quarters, and the Dragons had a hard time in putting the Rebels away even though the hosts led by as many as nine points in the fourth quarter.
MCC served notice that it would be in the game for the long run when it scored the first four points of the first quarter.
Adrian's Andrea Burzlaff, who netted a game-high 26 points, hit a pair of field goals to cap a 12-5 run that put the Dragons in front 12-9 as the period progressed. MCC, however, tied the game at 12 before Dragon Kylie Heronimus scored off an offensive rebound with one second remaining to give AHS a 14-12 edge at period's end.
The second period featured a number of ties, including a deadlock at 24 late in the stanza. Burzlaff snapped the tie by draining a pair of free throws with two-tenths of a second remaining to put the Dragons in front 26-24 at halftime.
Adrian scored the first two points of the third quarter to open its biggest lead of the night at 28-24, but the Rebels countered with a 14-6 run that gave them a 38-34 advantage. That lead was cut in half when Becky Knips scored two of her 14 points with 15 seconds remaining in the quarter to make it a 38-36 game.
The Dragons opened the fourth quarter with a 12-2 run that gave them a 48-40 lead. The difference was nine points (53-44) when Knips scored with an offensive rebound at the 2:05 mark of the stanza. MCC did climb within four points of AHS in the final minute before losing by six in the end.
Burzlaff, who netted 14 of her 26 points in the second half, had seven rebounds and three steals for the Dragons. Knips, who scored eight of her 14 counters in the second half, also recorded three steals.
Jenna Honermann scored 11 points and charted six assists for the 19-3 Dragons, who drew the No. 1 seed for the Section 3A South Tournament. Adrian will play the winner of a play-in game between No. 8 Ellsworth and No. 9 Edgerton at 3 p.m. Saturday in Worthington.
Box score
Heronimus 2 0 1-2 5, Bo.Bullerman 0 0 0-0 0, Honermann 4 0 3-6 11, Burzlaff 10 0 6-6 26, Henning 0 0 0-0 0, Kruger 0 0 1-2 1, Cox 0 0 0-0 0, Lonneman 0 0 0-0 0, Gengler 0 0 2-2 2, Strand 0 0 0-0 0, Knips 7 0 0-1 14, Br.Bullerman 0 0 0-0 0.
Team statistics
Adrian: 24 of 43 field goals (56 percent), 13 of 19 free throws (68 percent), 24 rebounds, 13 turnovers.
MCC: 19 of 49 field goals (39 percent), 11 of 16 free throws (69 percent), 17 rebounds, 10 turnovers.