LAUREL — The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge girls’ basketball team improved to 3-1 on the young season with a pair of Lewis & Clark Conference wins over Tri County Northeast on Dec. 8, 54-28 and Homer on Dec. 5, 69-49. The TCNE game was on the road while the Homer game was in Laurel.
In the win over the Lady Wolfpack, the Lady Bears raced to a 20-point lead at the end of the first eight minutes and were never really threatened.
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge added a basket to the lead by halftime and added seven points to the advantage after the third rest stop.
TCNE did outscore the Lady Bears in the final frame, but the game was over in the first quarter.
Rena Rasmussen continued her scorching start to the season and her career, leading the Lady Bears with 27 points in the contest. Rasmussen completed a double-double with 11 rebounds.
Mallory and Kaida Eriksen each provided 11 points to the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge total. Mallory Eriksen narrowly missed a doubledouble of her won as she brought down eight missed shots.
Delaney Johnson snared five rebounds, Tali Erwin and Laney Schutte each hauled down four.
It was more of the same just three days prior to the game with the Lady Wolfpack when the Lady Bears took on Homer in Laurel.
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge sprinted to a 2310 lead in the first quarter.
In fact, the Lady Bears scored the first six points of the game first on a fast break off of a defensive rebound by Erwin.
Erwin hit Kaida Eriksen who was running down the right side of the court. Eriksen spotted Lainey Schutte breaking across the lane and fed her a pass to the basket where she scored.
Schutte followed that play with a steal and a layup to make it 4-0 then Mallory Eriksen drove in from the right wing to score, forcing Homer coach, Merlyn Tremayne to call a timeout.
Rasmussen scored off the dribble in the lane to make it 8-2, but the Lady Knights made it 8-4 with a couple of charity tosses.
Mallory Eriksen scored on another layup to make it 10-4 but again, Homer answered with a traditional 3-point play.
The Lady Bears would then go on a 13-3 run to end the quarter to take the 23-10 advantage into the second quarter.
The Lady Knights would battle back to within five points before the intermission, but Laurel-Concord-Coleridge scored nine of the first 10 points of the second half to regain a 13-point lead.
Kaida Eriksen hit Rasmussen on a fast break, Erwin splashed a 3 and Mallory Eriksen threw a nice entry pass to Rasmussen for a bucket to make it 39-27 within 90 seconds of the beginning of the half.
Schutte hit Mallory Eriksen at the end of the quarter to put the Lady Bears up 53-38 and they outscored the Lady Knights 16-11 in the final frame to cruise to the 20-point win.
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge was set to take on Ponca in Laurel on Dec. 12 in Lewis & Clark Conference action.
The Lady Bears will be back in action with back-to-back home dates with Plainview and Bloomfield on Dec. 15 and 19.
LCC (3-1) 24 9 16 5 - 54 TCNE (0-3) 4 7 9 8 - 28 LAUREL-CONCORD-COLERIDGE: Camryn Sohler 0-3 0-0 0; Tali Erwin 0-7 0-0 0; Mallory Eriksen 4-6 2-4 11; Lainey Schutte 0-6 1-2 1; Carlie Kvols 1-6 0-0 3; Brynlee Stanley 0-3 1-2 1; Rena Rasmussen 7-15 9-11 23; Kaida Eriksen 4-11 0-0 11; Toni Thompson 0-2 0-0 0; Delaney Johnson 2-3 0-0 4. HOM (1-2) 10 17 11 11 - 49 LCC (3-1) 23 9 21 16 - 69 LAUREL-CONCORD-COLERIDGE: Sohler 1-2 0-0 3; Erwin 2-7 5; M. Eriksen 9-12 0-0 18; Schutte 4-4 0-0 8; Kvols 1-2 0-0 2; Stanley 0-1 0-0 0; Rasmussen 11-16 5-7 27; K. Eriksen 1-7 1-2 4; Thompson 0-1 0-0 0; Johnson 1-2 0-0 2.