It’s already been a wild girls basketball season in the Four Rivers Conference.
The league standings saw a shake up at the top with Pacific and St. James both suffering home losses Monday night.
Pacific (15-4, 2-2) saw its 12-game winning streak snapped with a 57-45 loss to Owensville (12-9, 1-3).
“The conference is very tough. We will make sure we are better prepared for our next game,” said Pacific Head Coach Josh Spuhl. “Owensville came out and popped us. Coach (Dwayne) Clingman did a great job.”
St. James (19-2, 2-2) lost its second straight contest after winning 19 in a row to start the season with a 65-53 loss to Hermann (18-4, 3-1).
“St. James has a great team. Anytime you can escape with a win against them, you know you have played well,” said Hermann Head Coach Todd Anderson.
Sullivan currently leads the FRC race with a 4-0 record after Monday’s 55-40 victory over New Haven.
Union and Hermann are tied for second place with 3-1 marks. Pacific and St. James stand at 2-2. St. Clair and Owensville are 1-3. New Haven is 0-4.
All eight teams in the conference have a .500 overall record or better.
Owensville-Pacific
The story of the game was Owensville freshman Hailey Diestelkamp, who scored 28 points.
Bailey Nelson added 16 points for the Dutchgirls.
“Diestelkamp played awesome. We couldn’t stop her,” Spuhl said. “We made a few runs at them late, but not enough.”
Owensville led 22-16 at halftime.
“We missed a lot of easy shots to start the game. We also missed 13 free throws,” Spuhl said. “These are things that we normally don’t do.”
Lizzy Almo scored 11 points to lead Pacific.
Ashley Hill and Hunter Kelemen both finished with nine points.
Meagan Wakefield and Kya Hill both added seven points. Ellen Rogers scored two points.
“We played completely out of character. I am taking the blame for this one. We will work hard the next two days to get ready for Sullivan,” Spuhl said. “Every game we play is to get ready for districts. This was a learning experience for us as a team.”
Owensville is out of the running for the FRC title, but may be getting the reputation as giant killers.
Not only did the Dutchgirls win at Pacific, but they also defeated Hermann this season in the semifinals of the Hermann Tournament.
Hermann-St. James
Hermann hit the road and handed St. James its second straight loss, both at home.
The Lady Bearcats trailed 20-13 after one quarter and 32-25 at halftime, but outscored St. James 40-21 in the second half, including 19-7 in the fourth quarter.
Kirsten Leimkuehler led the way for Hermann with 21 points.
“Kirsten had a great game for us,” Anderson said. “She hit open shots when she had the chance and did a nice job of taking the ball to the basket.”
Jamie Gleeson finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.
Karinne Lane also scored 14 points to go with eight steals and seven rebounds.
Tesla Ruediger and Kali Stiers both scored seven points. Stiers also had seven rebounds. Hayley Stiers scored two points.
“As a team, we had several different kids contribute,” Anderson said. “Karinne and Jamie had solid games and we got big contributions from Kali Stiers and Tesla Ruediger.”
Alexis Uffman led three Lady Tigers in double figures with 16 points. MJ Buschmann added 12 points. Shauna Rinehart scored 11 points.
