By By JEFF FISHER / Vigilant/Argus
Edwardsburg seemed assured of victory for the first 3 and a half quarters of Thursday night's Lakeland Conference match-up with River Valley.
A late Mustang rally forced the Eddies to earn their 39-30 home victory.
The Eddies built up a 7-0 advantage midway thru the first quarter, but River Valley stormed back to make it a 9-7 Eddie lead.
The Eddies' Julie Harness had a pair of baskets and Kristin Toney's three-pointer along with two other Eddies' scoring baskets helped the Eddies eke out an 11-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Mustangs opened the second quarter by jumping on top 12-11. The Eddies put together a well-balanced scoring attack that outscored River Valley 8-5 in the period. The Eddies took a 19-15 lead heading into the halftime break.
A 6-0 run by Edwardsburg opened the third quarter. The Eddies' Kristin Toney scored nine of her game-high 12 points in the third quarter to put her team up 28-18 to start the fourth quarter.
The Eddies outscored River Valley 9-3 in the period.
River Valley made one last run at them. Trailing 34-21 with 2:33 left in regulation, the Mustangs got six points from Tara Koebel, and three points each from Heather Totzke and Kali Lauzon. All of this whittled the lead down to 10, but the Eddies' Kerri Wood scored four points to jump start the Eddies and give them the conference win.
The Eddies swept the season series against River Valley.
Kristin Toney led all scorers with 12 points, six boards, and two three-pointers. Kerri Wood and Julie Harness each had eight points.
Stephanie Koontz added four blocks.
River Valley was led by Koebel with eight points and Totzke with seven.
The Eddies improve to 6-11 overall and 3-9 in the LAC.
They now host Coloma Thursday night which is the last home game of the regular season.
Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.