APPLETON WEST OVERCOMES HALFTIME DEFICIT TO DOWN STEVENS POINT GIRLS BASKETBALL

Zaleski Sports

APPLETON – The Stevens Point girls basketball team grabbed a five-point halftime lead but couldn’t hold on and dropped its season opener at Appleton West to the Terrors 61-55 on Tuesday night.

Stevens Point led 27-22 at halftime before West stormed back to outscore the Panthers by 11 in the second half to pull out the victory.

Emma Jossie had 15 points, Zoe Fink added 14 and Avery Lilly had 13 for Stevens Point. Tahlia Moe had a team-high eight rebounds in the loss.

“It was a disappointing outcome,” SPASH coach Kraig Terpstra said. “We started strong but were unable to sustain our solid play for the entire 36 minutes. West outplayed us down the stretch to win. First-game mistakes we made tonight can be fixed.”

Stevens Point will play at Neenah in another nonconference game on Friday.

Terrors 61, Panthers 55

Stevens Point 27 28 - 55

Appleton West 22 39 - 61

STEVENS POINT (55): Brittany Beadles 4, Abby Jossie 7, Avery Lilly 13, Tahlia Moe 2, Zoe Fink 14, Emma Jossie 15. 3-pointers: 6 (Fink 4, A. Jossie 1, Lilly 1). Record: 0-1.

APPLETON WEST (61): Statistics not reported. Record: 1-0.