Mt. Pulaski takes ‘Turkey Tussle,’ Clinton wins third

Marc Rogers
Posted 11/23/21

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Mt. Pulaski takes ‘Turkey Tussle,’ Clinton wins third

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CLINTON — The Lady Maroons recently hosted their 8th Annual Turkey Tussle girls round-robin basketball tournament.  The first tournament of the winter sports season at CHS. 

The Tussle is comprised of eight teams from seven conferences playing against each other in two pools, the Cranberry pool and the Stuffing Pool.  The Cranberry Pool was played at CHS and consisted teams from Clinton, Petersburg PORTA, Tri-Valley, and Deer Creek/Mackinaw (Dee-Mack) while the Stuffing Pool was hosted, as in the past, by Riverton High School. 

Besides Riverton, the Stuffing Pool consisted of Olympia, Mt. Pulaski, and Buffalo Tri-City.  Then on Saturday, November 20, the teams converged on Clinton High School to play four games to decide the final 1-8 standings. 

The first evening saw the Lady Maroons face the Tri-Valley Lady Knights in the second game at CHS.  The Lady Knights have always been an arch rival, but this game was quite different.  The Lady Maroons were on fire and led 19-10 at the end of the first quarter.  By the end of the half the home team was ahead 41-17 and never looked back.  The scoring was a little closer in the final half, but the Lady Maroons took their first win of the season 63-35. Mallory Cyrulik (#4) led the home team with 27 points followed by Kaitlyn Rauch (#11) with 18.                                     

The second day of competition saw the Lady Maroons pitted against the Lady Chiefs of Dee-Mack.  This game was a little tougher for the home team but ended up as a team effort.  The Lady Maroons had the opposition down by 14 points at the halfway point and won the game by 23 points, 65-42. 

The Lady Chiefs had done their due diligence by holding Cyrulik (#4) to only 13 points, but that opened up the flood gates for the rest of the team with Rauch (#11) leading the way grabbing 19 points, MaKayla Koeppel adding her share with 16 points, and Kylie Raymer adding 12 points. 

• See the complete story in the Friday, Nov. 26, print edition of the Clinton Journal or now in the Journal E-Edition for subscribers.