by Gary Andrews

After a disappointing weekend at the Wabash County basketball tourney, the Manchester Squires basketball team went on the road one week later and made some serious noise. The Squires paid a visit to Huntington Saturday and with 8 of the 9 players, who saw the floor scoring, knocked off the Vikings 66-60.

A strong defensive first half by the Squires was key in the win, as Manchester’s balanced attack took advantage. The Squires held Huntington to just 4 points in the first quarter while they built a 6-point lead. Manchester got buckets from Chase Fierstos and Lucas Schilling, while Clayton Petrie knocked home a three pointer and three free throws to lead 10-4 after one.

by Bill Barrows

 The only games between the Christmas and New Year's Holidays are the games contained within the Wabash County Tourney. It will be held at Wabash High School on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 27 and 28.

The JV games begin at 9 a.m. on Friday and are all scheduled to be played at Coolman Gymnasium. The games stack up as follows:

Wabash JV Girls vs. Southwood Girls at 9 a.m.

Southwood JV Boys vs. Wabash JV Boys at 10:30 a.m.

Manchester JV Girls vs. Northfield JV Girls at 12 p.m.

Northfield JV Boys vs. Manchester JV Boys at 1:30 p.m.

The varsity pairings for Day 1 in Coolman Gym are as follows:

by Gary Andrews

On a horrid shooting night, the Wabash Lady Apaches suffered their second loss of the season Tuesday, falling to Oak Hill 41-40.

Things looked good at the start when Jaclyn Lewis hit and after a Claire Cromer three the game was tied at 5, but with 3:00 to go, someone put a lid on the Apache bucket as they shot just 2 of 14 for the quarter and trailed 12-6 after one.

The shooting woes would continue for Wabash in the second, as the Lady Apaches didn’t find the bucket until 3:36 left when Kyleigh Hampton hit from behind the arch and a minute later Lewis hit again. The good news was Oak Hill was struggling also and Wabash trailed just 14-11. After an Eagle bucket, Lyndsie Thomas would hit two free throws to make it 16-13. Oak Hill would make one last push, scoring with 3 seconds left on the clock and led Wabash 18-13 at the half.

by Gary Andrews

The Southwood Lady Knight basketball team used bookend quarters to get past Bluffton Tuesday. The Knights had strong first and fourth quarters to pick up their fifth win of the season 44-33.

Southwood led 14-6 after the first quarter before running into scoring problems in the second and third. The Knights lost the second quarter 11-7 to lead 21-17 at the half.

Southwood continued to struggle on the offensive end in the third, putting up just 7 points, but held the Tigers to 7 and led 28-24 with a quarter to go.

The Lady Knights would find that magic again in the fourth out scoring Bluffton 16-9 to pick up the 44-33 road win.

by Gary Andrews

The Northfield girls’ basketball team picked up their fourth win in a row Tuesday, defeating Caston 54-35 to move to 6-3 on the season.

The Lady Norse overcame some illness and a poor shooting first half to pull away from Caston. Leading just 22-16 at the half, the Norse defense picked up the pace, while the offense found their rhythm, out scoring the Comets 32-19 in the second half for the win.

Leading the Lady Norse was Payton Thomson with 18, followed by Katie Stephan with 12.  Kylie Echard played a huge role in the win with her defense and rebounding while playing with a bad cold. Echard and Sid Reed led the rebounding with 7 and 8 respectively.

Payton Thomson had 18 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 3 assists. Katie Stephan had 12 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 assists. Sidney Reed had 9 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Kylie Echard had 6 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 blocks. Cherish Leming had 5 points, 5 rebounds. Arie Kennedy had 4 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 assist.

by Gary Andrews

The Northfield boys basketball team used balanced scoring Tuesday, putting 8 players in the scoring column in a 71-38 blow out over Southern Wells.

The Norse totally dominated the first half, leading 20-7 after one and 44-13 at the half.

The Norse would stay strong in the third, doubling up on the Raiders 14-7 before losing an 18-15 4th quarter for the 71-38 final.

by Bill Barrows

Because of the Christmas holiday and final exams for county high school students, the sports schedule is fairly light this week.

On Tuesday, the Lady Norse of Northfield host Caston, the Lady Apaches of Wabash host Oak Hill and the Lady Knights of Southwood travel over to Bluffton for non-conference matchups. On the boys’ side, only one game is on the docket with Northfield traveling to Southern Wells.

The weekend offers an intriguing slate of games. On Friday, the Manchester boys and girls teams travel to Southwood for an evening of basketball that fans love. High school basketball is a bargain, but in this case, twice the action for the price! The other matchup is at Coolman Gym where the Apaches will host Northfield.

by Gary Andrews

The Wabash boys’ basketball team took on Maconaquah Friday, falling in a game that went to the wire 56-53.

The Apaches fell behind in the first quarter and trailed 13-9 after one. Wabash would make up a little ground in the second quarter, out scoring the Braves 10-8 and trailed by just two, 21-19 at the half.

The offense would pick up for both teams in the third quarter with a combined 40 points scored. The two teams played to a 20-20 tie and the Apaches trailed 41-39 with a quarter to go.

Wabash would make a run in the fourth, tying the game at 47 with four minutes to go and were tied at 52 with .45 left before Maconaquah out scored the Apaches 4-1 for the 56-53 final.