LANGFORD – Langford Area received at least nine points from five different players to help fuel a 69-22 Lake Region Conference girls’ basketball win over Aberdeen Christian Tuesday night.

The Knights were without Jolie Fogarty, their main ball handler, which made the task more difficult against the Lions, who improved to 12-7 on the season.

“Without Jolie, obviously it’s tough and frustrating, but I saw some things from Jacie (Fogarty), Molleigh (Hofer), Ari (Johnson), Reagan (Jett) and Sophia (Eichler) that they weren’t having to do with Jolie on the court,” said Knights coach Matt Rohrbach. “They did some really good things, and it was good for them to be thrown into the fire without our main ball handler.”

Christian was able to beat the Langford Area press to start the game as Jacie Fogarty threaded the needle to find Jett for the first two points of the game before an offensive rebound led to a putback for Jett to tie the game at 4-4.

“Reagan was really active. I think she had the first four points of the game and then Ari got to the free throw line a couple times and she had a put back layup,” said Rohrbach. “When we broke the press and got some good looks, Sophia did a great job of attacking the basket so we could get some offensive rebounds. And it was just exciting to see the girls do things that they haven’t had to do all year.”

However, the Knights weren’t able to sustain breaking the press. The Lions were able to keep fresh legs on the floor, holding Christian to just four points in the second quarter and just four more in the third.

“They wore us down today. Subbed more than we did. When the girls got tired, we were just making tired decisions,” said Rohrbach. “I think that’s kind of what it boiled down to is we just got tired and their energy just kind of took over.”

What complicated things even further for Christian is when Eichler fouled out just nine second into the third quarter.

“Soph told me at halftime ‘I’m not gonna foul out of this game.’ She gave me a total of nine seconds in that second half,” Rohrbach said. “That was something we kind of laughed about, but yeah, not having our two main ball handlers was definitely unfortunate, but like I said earlier with Molleigh, Jacie, Erika (Moulsoff) and Lucy (Jones) having to step in and fill roles is still exciting from a coaching standpoint.”

Paytyn Marlow led Langford Area with 16 points, Josie Jensen followed with 14, and Bailey Dwight added 12. Lizzie Gustafson and Breckette Zubke both finished with nine.

Christian received points from six different players in the game.

“It’s always fun to clear the bench regardless of what the score is,” said Rohrbach. “And see everybody get in and have some fun.”

Christian, 3-15 on the season, wraps up the regular season with a road contest at Wilmot on Thursday before moving on to postseason action in Region 1B next week.

ABERDEEN CHRISTIAN (3-15): Ari Johnson 2 4-9 8, Jacie Fogarty 1 0-0 3, Reagan Jett 2 0-0 4, Lucy Jones 0 2-2 2, Erika Moulsoff 1 0-2 2, Sophie Glynn 1 0-0 3. Totals 7 6-13 22.

LANGFORD AREA (12-7): Clarissa Guy 1 0-0 2, Paytyn Marlow 6 3-6 16, Lizzie Gustafson 2 5-6 9, Alex Darling 2 1-1 5, Josie Jensen 5 4-7 14, Breckette Zubke 3 0-0 9, Brooklynn West 1 0-0 2, Bailey Dwight 6 0-0 12. Totals 26 13-20 69

Aberdeen Christian 8 12 16 22

Langford 13 29 51 69

3-point field goals – Fogarty, Glynn; Marlow, Zubke 3. Fouled out – Eichler. Total fouls – Aberdeen Christian 14; Langford Area 16.