Eldred Edges Tri-Valley Girls

    ELDRED-- The Eldred Yallow Jackets girls varsity basketball team put the sting into the Tri-Valley Bears Wednesday night at Eldred and pulled away in the fourth quarter for a 49-42 non-league victory.
  This was the first game of the season for both teams with Tri-Valley entering the 2013-14 season as the defending Class C Section IV champions but  having lost five seniors from last years team including their high scoring ace Katlynn Greffrath.
  Wednesday's game started out at a slow low scoring pace with both teams only able to put 8 points each on the score board.
  Tri-Valley outscored Eldred in the second quarter 16-13  to take a  24-21 half-time lead.
  The Bears continued their lead in the third quarter outscoring the Yellow Jackets 8-6 taking a 32-27 lead into the final eight minutes of play.
  The Yellow Jackets then swarmed all over the Bears in the fourth quarter outscoring Tri-Valley 22-10 off the eight points by Jordan Lepes and the six points by Kelsey Collins.
  Tri-Valley had a difficult time with Collins all night as Kelsey grabbed rebound after rebound and led her team in scoring with 16 points followed by Lepes with 14.
  French exchange student Sandra Alemany led the Bears scoring with 12 points followed by Caroline Martin with 10.
  Tri-Valley commmitted 23 turnovers to Eldred's 21.
  Eldred Coach Ryan Jasper felt his team had the edge under the boards with Collins and noted "both team were very physical and both refused to quit."
  He gave high praise to the defensive efforts of Sheila Burns.
  Jasper pointed out that Collins "has come up through a family of players and she's always looking for the ball."
  Tri-Valley Coach Jason Closs pointed out "that tonight we didn't play our best game and I praise Eldred and Coach Jasper for doing a fantastic job."
  Closs called  the Yellow Jackets a "scrappy and physical team and they deserve all the glory for this win."
  When asked what Tri-Valley has to do in future games, Closs said, "we have to do a better job controlling the boards and have to have improved passing."