Ethan girls cruise past Mitchell Christian

The Ethan Rustler girls’ basketball team came out shooting and never looked back, beating Mitchell Christian 49-26 Thursday night at Mitchell Christian School. It was Ethan’s eighth consecutive win.

For the Eagles, it marked their fifth consecutive loss as they struggled to get rhythm going. Mitchell Christian was outscored 16-3 in the first quarter. It wasn’t until there was about 3 minutes left in the first half when they made their first field goal.

“Offensively, we just couldn’t get anything to fall,” Eagles head coach Jackie Van Laecken said.

Becca Glanzer led Mitchell Christian in scoring with nine points, while Alexa Van Laecken had a game-high six steals. Brittany Zoss came down with six rebounds to lead the Eagles.

Leading the way for the Rustlers was Darbi Gustafson with 17 points. She also had five assists. Gustafson also grabbed eight rebounds, while Shelly Tilberg and Morgan Tuttle came down with nine to lead the team. Ethan finished the game with 33 rebounds compared to Mitchell Christian’s 16.

“We’ve been short against all the teams this year,” Van Laecken said. “We’ve been working hard on positioning, but they did a good job.”

The loss drops Mitchell Christian to 6-8, while Ethan improves to 11-2 on the season, pushing the Rustlers to the top of District 11B.

Rustler’s head coach Kyle Keegan isn’t afraid to remind his girls of their positioning in their district.

“We’ve been thinking about our district all season long,” he said. “We have Hanson, who has 11 wins, Scotland has 10 wins and now we have 11 wins. Avon and Menno are tough teams as well. District time, this is going to be a fun district to watch.”

Late in the game, Mitchell Christian’s Ashley Glanzer came down hard on the court and was taken out of the game. The team has stated that they will be watching her closely over the next few days but the training staff believes she avoided any serious injury.

Mitchell Christian’s next action is on Tuesday against Sanborn Central/Woonsocket in Woonsocket, while Ethan hosts Tripp-Delmont/Armour on Tuesday.

ETHAN 49,

MITCHELL CHRISTIAN 26

Ethan (11-2)

Bailey Grenoble 0 0-0 0, Whitney Endres 3 1-2 7, Morgan Tuttle 4 1-3 9, Darbi Gustafson 8 1-1 17, Shelly Tilberg 6 0-0 12, Kala Nurnberg 0 0-0 0, Alexis Neugebauer 1 0-0 2, Holly Lindeman 0 0-0 0, Katie Bicek 0 0-0 0, Aliea Kretschmer Webster 0 0-0 0, Danika Pollreisz 1 0-0 2, Rachel Hawkins 0 0-0 0, Kacey Bartscher 0 0-0 0, Janae Gustafson 0 0-0 0, Ellie Hohn 0 0-0 0

Mitchell Christian (6-8)

Alexa Van Laecken 1 1-2 4, Becca Glanzer 1 7-9 9, Katelyn Held 2 2-2 6, Brittany Zoss 0 5-7 5, Emily Reynen 1 0-0 2, Ashley Glanzer 0 0-0 0, Khiree Held 0 0-0 0

Halftime: Ethan 28-10

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