Lady Bears pick up a split against Mid-State foes

WAYNE — The Lady Bears won’t be switching conferences until the 2025-26 season, but they ventured outside of the Lewis and Clark Conference last week to take on a pair of Mid-State Conference foes.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge earned a close 56-53 win over Wayne Saturday night, but dropped a onesided 44-22 decision to state-rated Battle Creek on Saturday.

The Lady Bears came from behind on Jan. 20 to defeat Wayne 56-53 in a game played in Wayne after dropping a 44-22 decision to Battle Creek on Jan. 19 in Battle Creek.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge trailed for the first 29 minutes of the game with the Lady Blue Devils before a Rena Rasmussen dribble drive through the left side of the paint evened the score at 51-51.

Wayne scored inside, but Tali Erwin answered with a runner in the lane to tie the score at 53-53.

The Lady Bears forced a Wayne turnover and coach Marcus Messersmith called a timeout with 57.9 seconds left on the clock.

Kaida Eriksen gave LCC the lead on a dribble drive in the lane to make it 55-53, the Lady Bears first lead of the contest.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge forced another Wayne turnover after Eriksen’s bucket and Eriksen was fouled with 32.1 seconds left.

She missed both charity tosses, but Lady Bear defense got a stop.

Lainey Schutte was fouled with 13.8 seconds left, she missed both foul shots but Mallory Eriksen grabbed the rebound after the second miss.

As the clock wound down, Kaida Eriksen was fouled again with 8.9 ticks on the clock and she converted 1-of-2 charity tosses to get to the final score.

Wayne got down the court and called timeout with 4.9 seconds left, but a Laurel-Concord-Coleridge stop on the inbound play sealed the game.

“We had a slow start against Battle Creek and we had a shoot around before we played tonight and talked about not letting that happen,” Messersmith said. “Well, it happened again, but I was really happy with the way we stayed after it and got things going at the end.” LCC trailed by seven at the half and four at the end of the third frame.

“We worked on some things on offense in the shoot around,” said Messersmith. “We called a couple of timeouts early to remind them of those things, but our defensive pressure was there all night and in the end, that is what got us going.”

Rasmussen led all scorers with 21 points including a 9-for-11 performance from the charity stripe.

Mallory Eriksen added 12, Erwin tossed in 11 and Kaida Eriksen finished with seven.

Rasmussen and Mallory Eriksen each pulled down eight rebounds.

At Battle Creek, the Lady Bears managed just five points in the first half as they fell by the 44-22 final score. Statistics were not available at press time of the Advocate.

The Lady Bears were set to take on Osmond/Randolph on Jan. 23 before taking on Wakefield Jan. 25.

Laurel-Concord-Coleridge will open Lewis and Clark Conference Basketball Tournament action Jan. 27 with the tournament running through Feb. 5.

LCC 11 12 16 17 - 56 Wayne 15 15 13 10 - 53

LCC (9-6): Tali Erwin 5-12 0-0 11; Mallory Eriksen 5-8 2-3 12; Lainey Schutte 1-5 0-2 2; Carlie Kvols 1-2 1-2 3; Rena Rasmussen 6-13 9-11 21; Kaida Eriksen 2-6 3-8 7.