The Niles girls basketball team may have gotten senior point guard Elyse Zimmerman back from injury, but without starter Jazmin Brann, the Vikings were no match for visiting St. Joseph Friday night.

The Bears took advantage of a lack of rebounding and poor shooting by the Vikings to win the SMAC West Division contest 47-24.

Niles hit just 7-of-51 attempts from the field and were outrebounded 46-30 by St. Joseph, which rebounded from a loss to Class C Brandywine Tuesday night.

“You miss 44 shots, you’re just not going to win games,” Niles coach Phil D’Amico said. “I thought we had some good looks and we had some layups we didn’t finish. There were also some fundamentals that we were not good at tonight. We gave them too many second chances. We had too many unforced errors.”

St. Joseph led 10-5 after one and increased its lead to 24-14 by halftime.

Niles (6-11, 3-5 SMAC West) was held to just five points again in the third quarter as the Bears opened up a 37-19 lead heading into the final quarter.

Shelby Madison led a trio of St. Joe players in double figures with 13 points. Anna Fisher scored 12 and Lindsay White 10.

Emily Gaines led Niles with eight points, while Zimmerman, who returned to the line-up after missing seven games with a shoulder injury, added seven.

Brann did not play due to a concussion.

 

ST. JOSEPH 47, NILES 24

At Niles

ST. JOSEPH 47

Lindsay White 5 0-0 10, Makenzie Arent 1 0-0 2, Shelby Madison 4 4-6 13, Katie Algyre 2 2-2 6, Anna Fischer 5 0-0 12, Audrey Filippo 2 0-1 4, Sadie Brown 0 0-0 0, Elisha Thomas 0 0-0 0, Baylee Ruddell 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 19 6-9 47.

NILES 24

Jaycee Myer 1 0-0 2, Antonia Palmer 0 2-2 2, Emily Gaines 2 2-2 8, Maya Brookins 1 0-2 3, Elyse Zimmerman 2 2-2 7, Dee Alexander 1 0-0 2, Lexi Preston 0 0-0 0, Aynslee Myer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 7 6-8 24.

 

St. Joseph       10       24       37       47

Niles                5          14       19       24

3-point baskets: St. Joseph 3 (Fischer 2, Madison 1), Niles 4 (Gaines 2, Brookins 1, Zimmerman 1). Total fouls (fouled out): St. Joseph 10 (none), Niles 10 (none). Field goal shooting: St. Joseph 19-of-48, Niles 7-of-51. Rebounding: St. Joseph 46, Niles 30. Turnovers: St. Joseph 17, Niles 13. Varsity records: St. Joseph 14-3, 7-2 SMAC West Division; Niles 6-11, 3-5 SMAC West Division.