Grubbs, Schultes lead Spartan girls’ rally past IKM-M

 ELK HORN (Dec. 14) -- Freshman Quinn Grubbs scored 11 of her 21 points in the fourth quarter and senior Ellie Schultes also tallied 21 last Saturday as the 15th-ranked (1A) Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton girls erased a 10-point halftime deficit to beat IKM-Manning 54-50.
 The area non-conference matchup featured a frenetic pace much of the way and saw IKM-M (4-2) finish with 27 turnovers and 27 fouls. The host Spartans (5-1) had 16 turnovers and 16 fouls and responded well to being outscored 23-7 in the second quarter.
 “To me, it looked like rubber legs from both teams that played the night before. It just wasn’t very clean from either side,” said Exira-EHK head coach Tom Petersen.
 After building a 16-10 lead at the end of a quarter, Exira-EHK was outscored 23-7 in the second stanza, including a 13-1 Wolves’ finish that followed an exchange of threes by IKM-M senior Emily Kerkhoff and Schultes.
 Lexi Branning scored four baskets during the closing run - one off a wild scramble near the basket, another off her own missed free throw and another off a turnover with :02 left to make it 33-23 at the half.
 The Wolves would score just 17 second-half points, however, and the Spartans regained the lead for good on a Schultes 3-pointer in the fourth period. Quinn Grubbs’ third basket of the quarter gave E-EHK its biggest lead at 50-43, but the Wolves got another trey from Kerkhoff and Branning cut the margin to 52-50 with :19.3 remaining. Four seconds later, Grubbs knocked down a pair of free throws to seal the Spartan victory.
 Quinn Grubbs was effective off the dribble and made 8-of-11 field goals (5-of-11 free throws) on her way to 21 points. Schultes’ 21-point game included three treys and 10-of-13 free throws, and she also had four steals. Shay Burmeister and Macy Emgarten (eight rebounds, five steals) added five points each for the Spartans.
 Branning led the Wolves with 14 points and 10 boards, Nicole Hanson scored 12 and Ahrenholtz tallied nine points, nine rebounds and four assists.
 IKM-M outrebounded the Spartans 44-29 but made just 5-of-13 free throws compared to Exira-EHK’s 17-of-31.