Ash Grove basketballers fall to Greenfield, Spokane in losing week Ash Grove Lady Pirates tally wins against Greenfield, Stockton squads

The Ash Grove High School boys and girls basketball teams each played two games last week, with the girls beating Greenfield and Stockton, while the boys lost to Greenfield and Spokane.
Kennedi Climer hit for 17 points in the Lady Pirates 47-31 win over Greenfield Dec. 6.
Julianna Torbett added 10 points in the win at Greenfield. Ash Grove as a team had 22 offensive rebounds and 14 defensive rebounds and added 17 steals in the win.
The Lady Pirates opened the week hosting Stockton and came away with a 40-35 win. Ash Grove had 20 total rebounds in the game. No individual scoring statistics were made available at the time of this writing.
The Lady Pirates are scheduled for three games this week, as they were set to host Clever Dec. 10 and travel to Sparta Dec. 11. Ash Grove will take on Marshfield in Strafford on Saturday.

On the boys side, Ash Grove hosted Greenfield on Dec. 7, but lost, 40-23.
The Wildcats outscored the Pirates 9-5 in the first quarter and increased that lead to 19-12 by halftime. The Pirates played it tough in the third quarter, being outscored 6-5 to trail 25-17 going into the fourth quarter. Greenfield added 15 points in the final quarter to pull away for the 40-23 win.
“Greenfield came out and pressured us in the half court,” said Ash Grove head coach Josh Reece. “We will learn from this game which will allow us to handle the pressure better the rest of the season.”
Briley King led the Pirates with eight points; Dean Blake added seven points and Sam Moreland ended the game with six points.
Ash Grove traveled to Spokane Dec. 4, but came home with a 56-36 loss to the Owls.
Spokane jumped out to an early 20-4 first quarter lead and never looked back. The Owls increased that lead to 35-11 by the half. The Pirates did play better in the second half, outscoring Spokane 25-21 but still lost, 56-36.
“We played hard against Spokane but couldn’t execute early in the game which caused our boys to play from behind,” said Reece. “We couldn’t make enough stuff happen to overcome the lead.”
Draven Zeigler led Ash Grove with 12 points and King added eight points in the loss.
The Pirates were scheduled to host Billings Dec. 11 and will travel to Sparta on Friday.