Huge Fourth Quarter Leads EPPJ Girls To Victory

For the second game in a row, the Elgin Public/Pope John girls showed their resiliency, overcoming a deficit at halftime to bring home a win.

This time it was over the Bulldogs of Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family. For the second-straight game, and just the second time all year, the Wolfpack trailed at halftime, this time 25-21. A slow third quarter didn't seem to help matters, as EPPJ entered the final quarter down 39-25. However, the Wolfpack exploded in the final frame, scoring 31 points while holding the Bulldogs to just 10 to pull out a 56-49 victory. 

That fourth quarter was aided by the Wolfpack's ability to get to the free throw stripe. EPPJ shot 30 of their 41 total free throws in the final quarter, hitting 22. Baylee Wemhoff, Allyson Wemhoff and Liz Selting were all especially effective at the line, hitting a combined 22-of-32 of their free attempts. Allyson finished with a team-high 17 points, followed by Selting's 13 points. Lydia Behnk added 10 and Baylee finished with 8. 

The Wolfpack defense was stout all night as well. Behnk finished with an impressive nine blocks and the team came away with 16 steals.

In the second half of action, the boys were unable to duplicate the comeback of the girls. EPPJ finished the first quarter with a 13-10 lead before finding trouble scoring for the rest of the night, falling to the Bulldogs 71-36.

Kyle Schumacher and Chad Bode both finished in double figures on the night, scoring 11 points each to lead the Wolfpack. Hunter Reestman added six in support. As a team, EPPJ hit just 31 percent of their shots. However, one bright spot in the scoring was their ability to hit the deep shots, going 6-of-14 from beyond the arc.