By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Bishop LeBlond girls’ basketball team is a district champion for a second consecutive year as the Golden Eagles defeated Nodaway Valley 59-34 in the Class 2 District 16 championship at North Andrew High School Thursday.
The Eagles pounced on the Thunder right away, taking an 18-4 lead after the first quarter and never looking back.
Shae Lewis and Tatum Studer led three Eagles in double figures with 11 points each. Sloan Lewis scored 10. Studer, a junior, says the district title feels just as good if not better than last year.
"It's just amazing," she said. "We experienced this last year, but it feels just as good."
The Eagles led 32-12 at halftime and maintained a 20-plus point lead through much of the second half. LeBlond's full-court press defense frustrated Nodaway Valley (18-10) throughout, and helped the Eagles take control right from the beginning.
"I wish we would have carried that over a bit more in the third and fourth quarter," Studer said. "But, the defense and our press really flustered them."
Ava Graham led the Thunder with a game-high 19 points in defeat.
LeBlond head coach Jackie Ziesel says her team has worked hard all season to get to this point, as the Eagles have a 21-7 record entering the state tournament.
"Just honored our girls have made it back-to-back district championships," Ziesel said, "and for how hard they've worked all season. It seems like we just left this place not too long ago, and we're just really happy for the entire program that we were able to pull out that win tonight."
LeBlond now awaits the winner of the Plattsburg/Polo game. The Panthers and Tigers meet for a district title on Friday night at 6. LeBlond plays next on March 2 in state sectionals at Staley High School.