After a quiet first few minutes, the Sully Buttes Chargers got into their offensive attack along with a suffocating defense to down the Ipswich Tigers 65-30 Tuesday night in Ipswich.
Sully Buttes was led by senior Stevie Wittler, who showed the crowd that she worked on her game all summer, finishing with 32 points while Payge Bakker showed more fluid movement in the low post to also finish in double figures with 18 points.
The Sully Buttes defense was unrelenting forcing 29 turnovers on Ipswich. The Tigers and Chargers were both in their first games that count, but it was obvious that Sully Buttes had knocked off some rust after playing in a jamboree in the past couple of weeks.
They played against two other opponents more for officials to acclimate to the new “five foul rule”, where each team only accumulates five fouls per quarter and the one and one free throw shooting has been eliminated. After getting to the five foul mark, the fouled player shoots two free throws, then the foul totals are erased at the start of the next quarter.
Sully Buttes led 14-5 after the first quarter, and 35-18 at the half. The game was played with the continuous clock in the fourth quarter to speed up the game even more. The Chargers are at 1-0, while the young Tigers fall to 0-1. Sully Buttes has its home opener Friday night against North Central, while Ipswich travels to take on Hitchcock-Tulare Saturday evening.
