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EDWARDSBURG — Scott Rodeslier knew his Edwardsburg girls basketball team would need a great defensive showing Tuesday to beat visiting Portage Central. 

The Lady Eddies didn’t disappoint their first-year coach as they held the Mustangs below its season average in a 45-27 win. 

Edwardsburg improves to 6-2 overall, while Portage Central falls to 5-2.

“Except for a few little mistakes, I thought our girls did a nice job executing in our first game back from the holiday break,” Rodeslier said. “We set defensive goals of holding our opponent below their average. Portage Central came in averaging close to 43 points per game and we held them to 27. I was real pleased with that and I thought we handled their press pretty well too.”

Edwardsburg got solid performances at the offensive end of the floor. 

Sophomore guard Shelby Laubach paced Edwardsburg with a team-high 15 points to go with five rebounds and three steals. 

“Shelby has struggled a bit this year, but I feel like she broke out of that funk tonight with much work over Christmas break on her shooting. It paid off tonight and she made most of her free-throws,” Rodeslier said. 

Senior guard Maddie Pobuda added 14 points and two assists. Ella Zache finished with six points and six rebounds. 

“Ela is a great defensive player for us and hustles all over the court and has been a threat to score as well,” Rodeslier added. 

Pobuda drained four of her team’s six three-point field goals. Laubach and Kya Shier added one triple each. 

“Maddie is a good team leader for us and has put up points all year. Shier is real athletic and one of our better defensive players. Eberlein is gaining confidence and getting better every game as a rebounder and shot blocker,” Rodeslier said.

Shier contributed five points, two rebounds, a pair of steals and had two assists for Edwardsburg. Kourtney Zarycki had three points, nine  boards and four steals for the Lady Eddies. Mya Eberlein tossed in two points to go with four rebounds for the winners. 

Edwardsburg shot 15-of-63 from the floor (24 percent) and made 9-of-13 free-throw tries (69.2 percent) compared to Portage Central’s 9-for-47 from the field (19.1 percent) and 6-of-16 (38 percent) at the foul stripe. 

The Lady Eddies held a 38-23 rebounding advantage over the Mustangs. 

Edwardsburg forced Portage Central into 13 turnovers. The Lady Eddies had 15 turnovers themselves.

Pobuda scored five of her points in the first quarter. Her first triple of the night capped off the period and gave Edwardsburg a 12-6 lead. 

The Lady Eddies coverted a pair of Mustang turnovers into points and used a 7-2 run to start the second quarter in extending its advantage to 19-8. Layups by Shier and Zache and a Laubach triple highlighted that run by the Lady Eddies. 

Laubach’s old-fashioned three-point play, Eberlein’s short jumper and Pobuda’s triple capped off the half and sent the hosts into halftime with a 27-12 lead. 

Two more Pobuda triples and one from Shier in the third quarter powered Edwardsburg to a 41-20 lead entering the final stanza.

Portage Central, which suffered its second consecutive loss following a 5-0 start, was led in scoring by junior Karsyn Stephenson with nine points. Kate Bumgarner added eight and Justyce Boeve finished with six.  

Edwardsburg returns to Wolverine Conference action at home Friday when it hosts Niles.