By By DON EDEN / Edwardsburg Argus
It might not be the upset of the year in a year of upsets, but previously winless Edwardsburg beat previously undefeated Constantine 42-36 on Saturday in girls' varsity basketball.
The game started slowly for the Lady Eddies, who finally got a basket from senior Stephanie Koontz with 3:12 to play in the first quarter.
A basket by Emily Kozinski with her toe on the line in the corner at the buzzer, put the score at 11-9 in favor of the Lady Falcons.
Scoring remained scarce through the first half of the second quarter, and with the score tied at 14, senior Emilee Komins helped build a lead for Constantine with 10 points going into halftime.
Sophomore Lindsay Marks canned a 3-point shot at the buzzer for a 26-16 Lady Falcon advantage.
The only basket for Edwardsburg was when junior Brea Eden found sophomore Steffanie Streb on an inbounds play from the sideline.
"The girls were playing flat and I challenged them at halftime and was pleasantly surprised with their effort in the second half," Edwardsburg coach Diane Robertson explained.
Koontz led her teammates back into the game, forcing Constantine coach Mark Bradford to call a time out with the score 29-24 with 2:30 remaining in the third quarter.
After the time out, the Lady Eddies connected on a couple of bombs from behind the arc as Eden and Koontz did the honors and Koontz then found Eden under the basket just before the horn to put Edwardsburg ahead 32-30 with eight minutes yet to play.
The fourth quarter was won by the Eddies as Constantine had trouble finding the bottom of the net and Streb, Kozinski and Koontz each made baskets from keepng the Falcons from the lead.
"Steph (Koontz) does a good job of driving and dishing the ball off to an open teammate and it lifts the whole team," a joyful Robertson stated. "The majority of our offense is getting her the ball."
Komins was the only Falcon to make a field goal in the second half and her 18 points were six more than her average, but nobody else from the visitors found any success in the scoring column.
"We definitely need more balanced scoring since the shots were there, but we didn't make them," Bradford said. "Going 13-of-27 from the free throw line was doomsday for us and we broke down defensively, but Edwardsburg did a fantastic job backdooring us."
Koontz was at her best though and had 14 points in the second half and only one missed field goal in six attempts to score 19 points for the game.
Senior Lindsay Harroff and Kozinski had seven points apiece for the victors.
"This game will help us refocus and we should compete for our conference title," Bradford concluded.
Victory was not only the first of the year, but the initial win by an Edwardsburg hoop squad in the new gymnasium at the high school.
Stephanie's sophomore sister Allison was the leading scorer for the junior varsity in a 28-22 defeat, with freshman Randi Swartzenruber scoring 21 to lead the Falcons.
CONSTANTINE 36
Lindsay Marks 1 1-2 4; Kelly King 0 0-0 0; Brittany Kocher 0 0-0 0; Morgan Balcom 1 1-2 3; Andrea Baker 2 0-3 4; Stephanie Schutter 0 0-0 0; Emilee Komins 6 6-10 18; Arica Freshour 0 0-0 0; Chelsea King 0 4-6 4; Brigette Casselman 1 1-5 3. Totals: 11 13-28 36
EDWARDSBURG 42
Brea Eden 2 0-0 5; Leslie Boyles 0 0-0 0; Christina Hans 0 0-0 0; Emily Kozinski 3 0-0 7; Steffanie Streb 2 0-0 4; Stephanie Koontz 7 3-5 19; Elise Mackling 0 0-0 0; Lindsay Harroff 2 2-2 7. Totals: 16 5-7 42
Constantine 11 15 4 6 – 36
Edwardsburg9 7 16 10 – 42
3-point baskets: Marks (C), Eden (E), Koontz (E) 2, Harroff (E). Total fouls: Constantine 11, Edwardsburg 18. Fouled out: Koontz (E)