PENDLETON — The Pendleton Heights and Lapel girls basketball teams each kept their hot starts to the season going with key wins during the past week.
The Bulldogs grabbed a pair of wins, while the Arabians won a hard-fought Hoosier Heritage Conference game.
Lapel knocked off Guerin Catholic 56-23 on Tuesday, Nov. 21, and then defeated Alexandria-Monroe 55-45 on Wednesday, Nov. 22. The Arabians lone win came on Saturday, Nov. 25, against HHC opponent Shelbyville 45-44.
The two wins pushed Lapel’s record to 6-1 on the season, and the Arabians moved to 6-1 and a perfect 3-0 in the HHC.
In the one-point win versus Shelbyville, Pendleton Heights was led by junior Kaycie Warfel, who was coming off one of her best weeks as an Arabian.
A 40-point game in a win over Heritage Christian, a 22-point game in a win over Greenfield-Central, and a 32-point performance in Pendleton Heights’ win against Pike led to her being named District-2 Player of the Week by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association.
In the win over Greenfield-Central she also broke the 1,000-career-point mark.
Against Shelbyville, Warfel finished with 16 points.
Lapel got big performances from its two standout players as well over the week.
In the win over Guerin Catholic, senior Maddy Poynter led all scorers with 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting. She knocked down 4-of-5 shots from beyond the 3-point line. She rounded out her stat line with three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Laniah Wills recorded a double-double and finished second to Poynter in scoring. She pulled down 17 rebounds and added 11 points, two assists, two steals and one block.
Against Alexandria-Monroe the pair each had big nights once again.
Wills led the team with 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Defensively, she tallied three steals and one block.
Poynter finished with 13 points and six assists.
The 17 rebound game tied Wills season-high and the two double-doubles gave her seven in seven tries this season.
Poynter’s 27-point outburst matched her season high.
Over the two-game stretch Sophie Goodwin tallied seven points, seven rebounds and five steals, and Annalee Stow added 13 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals.
Lapel played Yorktown on Tuesday (after press time), and plays host to Greenfield-Central at 7:30 p.m. today, Thursday, Nov. 30. Pendleton Heights will be on the road to take on HHC rival Mt. Vernon 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2.