Two Eagle River slips by Alberton girls

Two Eagle River’s girls' basketball team got their third victory of the season in their second-to-last game of the season at the expense of the home-standing Alberton Lady Panthers, who were looking for their first win of the year.

Despite the records involved it was a thrilling game, with multiple lead changes and tie scores along the way. 

Saturday, the Valley Christian Eagles, the home team blasted Alberton 63-21 in the regular season finale for both teams. 

Also Saturday, the Alberton boys fell behind Valley Christian 24-0 after the first minutes of play enroute to a 68-31 Western 13C league finale. 

Alberton’s girls came out of the first quarter with a 10-8 lead over Two Eagle River (TER), then outscored TER 18-10 in the second quarter enroute to a 28-18 halftime lead. 

But the Two Eagle tightened their defense and held Alberton to three second quarter points while scoring 19 of their own to build a 37-31 lead with one quarter to play. 

Alberton kept fighting in the final quarter and shaved four points off the Two Eagle lead, but the visitors were able to hang on, run out the clock and walk away with a 47-45 conference win. 

Saturday in Alberton, the Lady Panthers fell behind 22-8 after the first quarter of play versus Valley Christian.  The Lady Eagles upped their lead to 35-12 by the half. 

Valley Christian outscored Alberton 27-12 in the second half to secure the conference win. 

The Alberton boys, who played just one game this past week, experienced a power outage in the first quarter in the form of a scoring drought as they emerged from the first eight minutes of play trailing VC 24-0.   

Valley outscored the Panthers 16-9 in the second quarter to take a 40-9 lead into the halftime intermission.  Alberton kept battling but were outscored 28-22 in the second half to secure the win. 

Standout junior forward Shea Fredette led the Panthers with 12 points, while teammate Jaxson Zimmerman chipped in 10 points. 

Forward Andrew Mcketheu led all scorers with 22 points for Valley Christian. 

The win boosted VC to 7-10 overall and 5-6 in 13C conference play, while the loss dropped Alberton to 2-16 on the year and 1-9 in league games. 

Both teams will take part in the Western 13C District tournament this Thursday-Saturday (Feb 20-22) at Frenchtown High School.