Basketball Recap: Heartland Lutheran Drops Highest Score of Season Against Newman Grove/St. Edward

Winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Heartland Lutheran). They were the clear victor by a 58-33 margin over the Newman Grove/St. Edward Panthers on Thursday. The Red Hornets pushed the score to 47-24 by the end of the third, a deficit the Panthers had little chance of recovering from.

Heartland Lutheran was led to victory by Ella Francl and Abigail Uden. Francl dropped a double-double on 17 points and 17 rebounds, while Uden almost dropped a double-double on 17 points and nine steals. Francl also grabbed seven steals, which is notable because Heartland Lutheran is 3-1 when she posts at least five steals, but 3-7 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Ema Marie Koch, who posted nine points.

Red Hornets

Offensive Rebounds

01/26/24 vs St. Edward	29
12/16/23 @ Harvard	24
12/07/23 @ Hampton	23
01/16/25 @ Newman Grove/St. Edward	21
01/30/24 vs Elba	18

Heartland Lutheran smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 21 offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive boards they've posted since back in January of 2024.

When it comes to explaining why Newman Grove/St. Edward lost, don't look at Kailey Patzel. Despite the final result, she dropped a double-double on 19 points and 19 boards. That was a full 57.6% of Newman Grove/St. Edward's points, marking the seventh time in a row she's had more than a third of the team's points. Korina Bittner also deserves some recognition as she scored her first point of the season.

Heartland Lutheran has been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 6-8 record this season. As for Newman Grove/St. Edward, they are on a six-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 1-13.

Heartland Lutheran will get to enjoy the win for a while: their next game is against Red Cloud at 6:00 p.m. on January 28th. As for Newman Grove/St. Edward, they wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next contest, a 44-35 loss against Fullerton on the 18th.