Royals hit dead end against Mainstreeters

From the tip-off to the final buzzer, the Royalton Royals played a tight game with the Sauk Centre Mainstreeters but came up short 30-27 at Royalton, Jan. 23. Royals’ sophomore guard Leslie Warzecha stated: “We played with them all the way to the end.”

Free throws were the name of the game on Friday with the Mainstreeters going 11-for-15 from the line, and the Royals were 15-for-24. Royalton scored only six field goals during the game, “Our defense helped us stick with them,” said Senior Sandy Jabas. During the first quarter the Royals held the Mainstreeters to only eight points and four points in the second but could only come up with 10 themselves.

The fourth quarter proved to be the most important. With under two minutes left in the game, Sauk Centre’s Brooke Engan banked in a three pointer to put the Mainstreeters up by one, and fellow Mainstreeter, Shantell Kuhlmann, put in a field goal just behind the free throw line. Next, Royalton junior Amanda Meyer nailed two free throws to put the home team within one. But Kuhlmann was fouled and sank her two free throws to put the Mainstreeters up by three.

On the other end of the court Warzecha was fouled on a three point shot and made one of her three free throws. Engan put Sauk Centre ahead by three again after making a free throw with 10 seconds left in the game. The Royals called time-out with 1.5 seconds left and tried a three point shot, but came up empty. With this loss the Royals are currently 6-7 overall and 4-2 in the Prairie conference.