Leola-Frederick Titans participated in the annual Ellendale Holiday Tournament on January 2-3. The girls’ and boys’ varsity teams played one game on Friday and one game on Saturday. Following Saturday’s championship game team and individual awards were handed out. Michaela Podoll and Logan Weisser were named to the All-Tournament team.
On Friday both teams played Ellendale and both lost despite providing some great basketball action for the fans. The highlights were posted on 7m. The Lady Titans were edged out by just one point to Ellendale. The game was close the entire evening with the Titans down by just two at half-time at 17-19. They led by the same amount at the end of the third quarter. The 41-42 loss ended a hard fought game. The Titans were led by Michaela Podoll with 14 points followed by Mackenzie Heilman with 10. Other scorers for the Titans were Cassandra Hinz 5, April Hoffman 4, Chandler Ellwein 3, Savana Hinz 3, and Abby Berreth with 2. M. Podoll had the lone Titan 3-pointer.
The final score of 53-63 in boys’ game against Ellendale doesn’t reflect how close that game was, especially in the first half. Leola-Frederick came out swinging, dominating the first half with good team ball against the Cardinals. At half-time, the Titans led 30 – 24. Ellendale’s Coach Vance must have given a really good half-time speech because the Cardinals came out strong and took over the second half. Leading the Titans were Logan Wiesser with 15 and Zach Sumption chipped in 13. Other scorers were Kyle Kenser 8, Jayden Mikkonen, Stephan Haas and Logan Heupel contributed 5 points each and Fred Lapka added 2. The 3-pointers scored in this game came from Sumption 2, Weisser 1, Kenser 1, Mikkonen 1, and Haas 1.
Saturday the Titan teams played Edgeley-Kulm-Montpelier teams and each seemed to lack the enthusiasm they possessed the night before. In the girls’ 26-47 loss Michaela Podoll again led the scoring with 7 points followed by Mackenzie Heilman 4, Mikayla Forsting 4, Keely Podoll 3, Savana Hinz 2, Abby Berreth 2, Cassandra Hinz 2, April Hoffman 1, and Demi Truebenbach 1. M. Podoll and K. Podoll each had a 3-pointer.
The Titan boys’ fell to Edgeley-Kulm-Montpelier with a final score of 45-60. Jayden Mikkonen and Kyle Kenser led the scoring with 12 and 11 points respectfully. Also scoring for the Titans were Logan Weisser 8 points, Stephan Haas 7, Zach Sumption 3, Logan Heupel 2 and ironically, 2 points scored by the opposing team in an attempt to get a rebound. Mikkonen, Kenser, Haas and Sumption each had a 3-pointer.
