Above: Burlington High School's Mylee Stiefel (10) drives to the basket during their home game against Fort Madison High School on Friday, (Jan. 13) at Burlington High School. Photo/John Lovretta
By Joe Geren
The way to beat Fort Madison High School’s girls basketball team may be to stop senior guard/forward Camille Kruse, but that could be wishful thinking.
Burlington’s Grayhounds learned that Friday night.
Kruse poured in 26 points to lead the Bloodhounds to a 46-28 Southeast Conference victory in Carl Johannsen Gymnasium. Fort Madison (9-3, 5-1) maintained its grip on first place in the conference.
“We did have a hard time stopping her,” BHS head coach Deedee Warner said. “That was the key to our whole pregame, to shut her down, but we missed some assignments and just couldn’t hang with her tonight. We’re going to work on it.”
Kruse sank 10 field goals, five from 3-point range, and she was 1-for-2 at the free throw line. She averages 18.8 points a game.
Fort Madison never trailed. Kruse opened the scoring with two consecutive 3-pointer, and the Bloodhounds gradually increased the margin for three quarters. They led 14-3, 23-5, and 37-7 at the first three-quarter breaks.
The Grayhounds owned the final eight minutes, outscoring Fort Madison 19-9. BHS had a nine-point run to finish the game.
Above: Burlington High School's Daphne Brown (20) battles for the ball. Photo/John Lovretta
Burlington struggled to score in the first three quarters. “I don’t know what’s going on with that,” Warner said. “We look good (shooting) in practice, but we get out here in a game and just lose our focus. I’m just going to keep working on the girls and tell them to stop playing east and west and play north and south. That’s our problem right now, and turnovers kill us. We beat ourselves.”
Halle Menke scored 12 points for Fort Madison, and Taylor Johnson added six. Lilly Bartels led Burlington with nine points, and Mylee Stiefel scored seven, all in the fourth quarter. Ella Schroeder scored five, Emma Roher had three, and Saydee Plummer added two points.
Burlington fell to 2-7 (0-5).
Above: Burlington High School's Mylee Stiefel (10) shoots the ball during their home game against Fort Madison High School. Photo/John Lovretta