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Lady Bucs fall to Boylan Titans
The Belvidere Bucs hit the road on Dec. 10 as they looked to upset the Boylan Catholic Titans. The Titans came into the matchup with an overall record of 5-2 and as winners of four straight. The Bucs were 5-2 themselves, raising the expectations for this conference matchup.
Belvidere’s offensive production has played a large role in their success in the early parts of the 2024-2025 girls’ basketball season. They have scored as much as seventy points in a game and scored at least 60 points in four other games.
That wasn’t the case against the Titans, however. Belvidere’s leading scorer, Emma Pierson, couldn’t get her shots to fall. The senior hit just four of her 18 shot attempts on the night as she tried to help her team keep pace with the Titans.
Boylan was comfortable in front of their home crowd. The shots were falling on their end as they jumped out to an 18-10 lead at the end of the first. By the halftime break, the Titans held a commanding 38-18 lead.
It was a deficit the Bucs were unable to erase, at least on that day. Arianna LaBeau was a bright spot on an offense that otherwise struggled to produce. LaBeau led Belvidere with 19 points. She did so in efficient fashion as she hit nine of her 16 field goals on the night. Pierson finished the day with 8 points. Kayla Beaudet added 6 points in the game.
Boylan let up in the second half, but they still defended their home court with a 58-39 victory over the Bucs. Just about everything that could have gone wrong for the Bucs on that day, did. Not only was the offense struggling to score, but they also had eighteen turnovers in the game. That, paired with some foul trouble, was a situation for the Bucs to play in.
Pierson still made her efforts known in other areas. She led the Bucs in rebounds with nine, as well as assists with three. Beaudet was right behind her with eight rebounds of her own, and Maggie Sternquist finished the day third in rebounds with seven.
The Bucs responded by hopping back into the win column with a pair of victories over Belvidere North and Lakes, last week. The Bucs beat Belvidere North by a score of 67-32 on Dec. 13.
The very next day, they began play in this year’s Northern Illinois Holiday Classic. There, Belvidere split games against Lakes and Larkin. After beating Lakes by a score of 55-35, the Bucs went on to fall to Larkin 60-37. The loss dropped their overall record to 7-4 on the season.
While there is plenty of basketball left to be played, especially after the holiday break, Bucs games have a common theme throughout the first half of the season. After 11 games played, only two games were decided by 10 points or less. Whether the Bucs win or lose, their games haven’t been coming down to the wire.
Belvidere’s closest game of the season came back on Nov. 22, when they lost to Wauconda by a score of 57-55. They followed that up with a 55-48 victory over Jefferson. Excluding those two games, every Belvidere girls’ basketball game has been decided by an average deficit of just over 27 points.
On Friday, Dec. 20, the Bucs are set to play host to the Harlem Huskies. Harlem has gotten off to a slow 1-6 start to the year. Then, the Bucs are off until Jan. 4, when they travel to take on Woodstock.
