February 24, 1999

Columbian takes Fremont Ross, 56-44

By Ed Fox
Sports Writer

SHELBY &emdash; Columbian took control down the stretch for a 56-44 win over Fremont Ross Tuesday night, advancing to Saturday's Division I Sectional finals at Shelby High School.

The Tornadoes, 15-6, were leading by just one (39-38) heading into the final minute of the third quarter.

Then, Kris Keirns buried a 3-pointer with 53 seconds to go and Katie Kobelt scored with 1.5 seconds to go as the Tornadoes took a 44-38 lead into the final period.

Keirns later added a layup after intercepting a pass from Brittany Ford and the Tornadoes pushed their lead to eight (46-38).

''That three by Keirns really gave us a lift because we had been struggling and it really opened up things inside for us. Once we went to the delay game, we were able to knock down our free throws until the final minute and that's something we have to do a better job at,'' said Columbian head coach Larry Kisabeth.

Even though the Little Giants managed to get within six, at 46-40 and 48-42, the Tornadoes closed with an 8-2 run to advance to Saturday's 8:15 p.m. sectional championship game against No. 1 seed Mansfield Madison.

''I thought we were able to get off to a quick start (17-6 lead at the end of the first quarter), but Fremont took the wind out of our sails in the second quarter and really shot the ball well and passed the ball well,'' said Kisabeth. ''We talked about our guard play at halftime and our guards really stepped it up the second half and did a nice job both offensively and defensively.''

Junior Katie Fazekas, who had 22 points at Shelby in a regular season game, led the Tornadoes with 18 points with nine in each half.

While she was doing the damage from the outside, it was the trio of senior Jenny Bergstrom, junior Erin Moore and junior Anna Fretz causing havoc inside.

Bergstrom only scored five points, but claimed nine rebounds, while Moore had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Fretz chipped in with 10 points and eight boards.

''Late in the game, our big people came up with all the rebounds. Bergstrom had a ton of rebounds late and it just seemed that whenever we needed a rebound we got it,'' said Kisabeth.

The Tornadoes had a 36-15 edge on the boards and it was even more lopsided through the first three quarters with Columbian holding a 26-7 advantange.

Ross was able to stay close because of its torrid shooting. The Little Giants connected on 18-of-29 through three quarters, but really cooled off in the final eight minutes with just 3-of-14.

''I felt we were going to roll. We were causing problems with our press in the first quarter. Then, we took it off in the second quarter we took the press off and packed in the zone and they started hitting the shots by people that we had picked up on in our scouting,'' said Kisabeth. ''It wasn't the best game we've played, but we hung in there and did what we had to do. Fretz really had a nice game inside and she likes to play against Fremont.''

Alison Decker and Natasha Watson each scored 14 points for the Little Giants.

''We had the opportunities, but just couldn't do anything with it,'' said Ross head coach Sue Wolf. ''We're not normally a good-shooting team and that's why we should be a better offensive rebounding team, but we're not. We let them (Columbian) post us so low that we just couldn't rebound. We got beat by 10 in our regular season meeting with them and it was about the same tonight.''