Ulrich’s 29 points power North Union to season-opening hoops win
ARMSTRONG — North Union freshman Ainsley Ulrich made quite an impression during her Iowa varsity high school basketball debut on Tuesday night in West Bend.
Ulrich poured in a game-leading 29 points, including a game-best four 3-pointers, to help the visiting Warriors overpower the West Bend-Mallard Wolverines, 78-46, during season-opening Top of Iowa Conference hardwood action.
Ulrich demonstrated her versatility by grabbing four rebounds and distributing three assists during the Warriors’ winning ways.
Senior guard Naomi Jones contributed 17 points on 6-for-12 field-goal shooting to complement doling out four assists and pocketing four steals in North Union’s runaway triumph.
Senior guard Libby Stevens supplied 14 points, collected a game-best nine steals and distributed a game-high six assists for the Warriors, while freshman teammate Shallie Walders and senior post player Olivia Merrill contributed eight points apiece to the wide-margin win.
Merrill also made five steals and dished out four assists, Walders made a pair of 3-pointers to pace her scoring effort, while Ava Steinberger topped the team’s rebounding effort by pulling down five caroms.
The Warriors made 23 of 41 shots from 2-point distance for 56.1 percent, connected on 7 of 20 from behind the 3-point line and blistered the nets on 11-for-12 shooting from the free throw line.
The Warriors doubled up the Wolverines by a 22-11 margin after one quarter of play before building a 41-17 lead at halftime. North Union then erupted in the third quarter to outpoint West Bend-Mallard by a 28-16 margin.
North Union (1-0) returns to action by playing host to North Iowa at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 1, in a Top of Iowa Conference game in Armstrong.