Mendota’s Amellia Bromenschenkel glides past St. Bede’s Maggie Sons on her way to the basket on Dec. 28 at the St. Bede Christmas Classic. (Reporter photo)

PERU – The Mendota Lady Trojans finished in fourth place in the St. Bede Christmas Classic held Dec. 27-29 at the Academy in Peru.

Mendota opened the tournament with two games on Dec. 27. The Lady Trojans defeated Kewanee, 30-24, in game one.

It was a struggle offensively for both teams. Mendota managed only two points in the first period and trailed 5-2. The Lady Trojans finally heated up in the second quarter and took a 14-12 halftime lead.

“We had some good looks at the basket, but they just didn’t go in,” said MHS coach John Hansen. “Our defense was great, we crashed the boards and got on the floor.”

Amellia Bromenschenkel poured in 13 points, hauled down 10 rebounds and collected seven steals to lead the Mendota attack. Also, Abby Phalen grabbed eight rebounds, Phalen Hessenberger had seven caroms and Larkin O’Donnell totaled five steals.

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Mendota went up against a strong Eureka squad later in the day and came up on the short end of a 59-29 score.

Eureka got off to a fast start, sprinting out to a 20-9 lead after eight minutes. The Hornets really took control in the third quarter when it opened up a 25-point bulge (50-25).

“We played hard, but Eureka caught fire and we just couldn’t keep up,” noted Hansen.

Bromenschenkel led Mendota in scoring with nine points, while Phalen had eight points and six rebounds.

Mendota connected on just 25 percent of its field goal attempts.

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The Lady Trojans closed out pool play with a hard-fought 41-37 triumph over St. Bede on Dec. 28.

Every time Mendota looked like it was going to run away and hide, St. Bede clawed its way back to tighten the game. The Lady Trojans led by as many as 10 points (16-6) in the second quarter only to see the Lady Bruins rally to close the margin down to one (19-18) at the break.

The third quarter featured a 7-0 spurt by Mendota to begin the half, but St. Bede ended the quarter by scoring six of the final seven points. Then in the fourth period, the Lady Trojans led by nine points (37-28) on a Hessenberger basket with 1:36 to go, but they had to sweat out the final seconds as St. Bede closed the gap down to three. O’Donnell split a pair of free throws with 5.7 seconds left to seal the win.

“We played hard enough to win an ugly game,” said Hansen.

Mendota had a balanced scoring attack led by Bromenschenkel with 11 points. Hessenberger was next with 10 tallies, while Phalen added nine and Alex Barrera eight. Phalen and Bromenschenkel each handled 12 rebounds.

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Mendota and Seneca hooked up in a fierce battle for third place and the Lady Irish prevailed, 40-37, on Dec. 29.

It was a back and forth game, with the Lady Trojans trailing 21-13 at halftime, but then going on a 17-4 tear in the third period to grab a 30-25 lead heading to the fourth frame. However, Mendota (7-7) could not keep up the momentum in the fourth as Seneca rallied from a seven-point deficit with just 1:40 left to pull out the win.

“This was a tough loss to swallow,” stated Hansen. “We let Seneca hit a couple of threes and pressured ourselves into a few costly turnovers and Seneca capitalized.”

Barrera had a big game offensively, leading the attack with 17 points. Thirteen of her points came from the free throw line. Bromenschenkel was next with 16 markers, and she shared team-high honors with Phalen with six rebounds. Bromenschenkel also had six steals.