Two weeks ago, the Lady Rams basketball team started their week at Scottsburg on Tuesday, January 9. The Warriors had a great game, outsourcing the Rams 27-7 in the first quarter, 24-8 in the second, 17-9 in the third, and 14-8 in the fourth quarter. The Lady Rams lost 23-82 to the No. 9 in 3A Warriors.
The scorers were junior Jericho Hopper, 15 points; senior Carley Higgins, 12 points; and sophomore Maddie Vernon, 5 points. The Rams shot 70% from the free-throw line.
The team hosted Springs Valley for a PLAC matchup on Thursday, January 11.
The Rams started slow, being down 11-19 going into halftime. The Rams tried to cut the Blackhawks’ lead going into the third quarter, but Springs Valley had an answer, outscoring Paoli 14-8 in the third. The Rams outscored the Blackhawks in the fourth quarter, 17-10, but that was no match for the Blackhawks’ lead. The Paoli Rams lost 36-43.
The Lady Rams had another PLAC match-up on the road at Mitchell the following week on Tuesday, January 16. The Rams won the PLAC game 49-38, improving their record in PLAC to 2-3.
“We started off slow but we got it together in the 4th quarter,” said sophomore Maddie Vernon.
The leading scorers for the Lady Rams were senior Carley Higgins with 21 points, junior Lilly Hall with 12 points, and junior Jericho Hopper with 8 points.
The team ended their week by hosting Loogootee on Saturday, January 20. The Rams won 60-50 against the Lions.
The leading scorers for the Rams were senior Carley Higgins, scoring 29 points; sophomore Maddie Vernon, adding 17 points; and junior Jericho Hopper, contributing 9 points. The Rams are now 9-11 on the season and 2-3 in the conference.
On Friday, January 12, the Rams basketball team hosted Northeast Dubois and won with a score of 66-41. With the Rams winning handily, they were offensively led by junior Fletcher Cole with 17 points, senior Trey Rominger with 16 points, senior Andrew Kumpf, and sophomore Cooper Spires, who each had 6 points for the Rams.
“Honestly as a team, we are playing amazing basketball right now. We are all able to play together really well and it is showing on the court. Even though we are playing some tough competition we are competing and having a great record and hopefully it will carry-on throughout the season as we go on,“ said Kumpf.
The next day, the Rams traveled to Eastern High School and won by 58-48. The leading scorers for the Rams were junior Fletcher Cole and senior Trey Rominger, who had 19 points each, and sophomore Chad Sullivan, who had 11 points for the Rams.
The Rams were scheduled to face one of their county rivals, the Springs Valley Blackhawks, but the game was postponed due to weather. The makeup date of the game has not been scheduled at this time.
On Saturday, January 20, the team traveled to Christian Academy and lost 62-59. This loss was challenging for the Rams, breaking their six-game winning streak. For the Rams, the leading scorers were sophomore Cooper Spires with 15 points, senior Trey Rominger with 12 points, and sophomore Chad Sullivan with 12 points.
“It was a tough loss for us being such a close game that we knew could have easily gone either way. Though it is in the past and we all know what we can do, and just to continue playing how we have been in the next games to come,” said Sullivan.
The Rams are now 10-2 and 2-0 in PLAC conference play.
On Saturday, January 13, the Wrestling team competed in the Southwestern Wrestling Classic and placed 10th out of 18 teams at the meet. The Rams ended with two wrestlers on the podium, with senior Larry Warren placing 4th in the 175 lbs. weight class and junior Jonny Shellenbeger placing 3rd in the 157 lbs. weight class for the Rams.
The team hosted Eastern High School for a dual on Tuesday, January 16, with the Rams coming out of the match, winning with a score of 34-24, though there were no individual stats for the night.
“We wrestled a team that was very evenly matched with us, and we wrestled very well and ended up winning, we still have a lot of work to put in before sectionals,” said Shellenberger.
The Wrestling team will travel to Crawford County on Monday, January 22. Then, on Saturday, January 27, the team will travel to Southridge for Sectional play starting at 9 a.m.
