Lady Wolves squeeze past North Middle, 29-27

Diedra Burch scored 21 points to help lift the Warm Springs girls basketball team past North Middle School 29 to 27 on Thursday, January 4 at the Warm Springs Middle School gymnasium.

Burch provided the bulk of Warm Springs offense, but it was the defensive effort, especially that of Chelsea Hessler that drew praise from Warm Springs coach Jeff Derby.

"Diedra is our biggest offensive threat and she usually gets her points," Derby said. "We felt pretty confident that Diedra would score, but we were concerned with holding down their top scorer. And, we were able to do that for the most part, because of the tremendous defensive effort put forth by Chelsea Hessler. We played a triangle and two, with Chelsea assigned to their leading scorer. She was able to hold the girl well below her season average and that helped us pull out the win."

It was Warm Springs that took early control of the game, with Burch scoring seven, first quarter, points and Harley Stotler two, while holding North to only three points.

The two teams pretty much traded baskets in the second quarter, with the Wolves holding a 14-9 half-time advantage.

Warm Springs matched North point for point in the third stanza and headed into the games final six minutes with a five-point lead, 22-17.

North kept it close, but some clutch free throw shooting by Warm Springs down the stretch sealed the two-point victory for the home team.

Burch led the Wolves with 21 points, with Stotler and Hessler adding three points each. Michelle Williams rounded out the scoring with two points.

This was the fourth consecutive win for the Wolves as they improved to 6-2 on the year.