DARLINGTON — The battle for the top spot in the SWAL girls’ basketball standings became a game of playing catch-up as Mineral Point knocked Darlington out of first place for the first time this season with a hard-fought 61-47 victory at Darlington High School on Thursday, Jan. 17.

The two teams came into the evening tied atop the SWAL along with Cuba City, but when the final horn sounded the Lady Pointers (12-3 overall, 7-1 SWAL) were still in the lead along with the Cubans (11-3, 7-1) — who needed to rally past Riverdale on Thursday night — while the Redbirds (11-3, 6-2) dropped into third-place.

The Pointers used a 12-5 scoring run at the end of the first half to grab a six-point halftime lead, and then maintained that lead the entire second half thanks to a big performance at the free throw line to halt a six-game slide against the Redbirds.

Coach Matt Austin’s Pointers got into the flow on offense early in the game with four players scoring to shoot out to a 10-0 lead. The Redbirds started the game off by shooting 0-for-11 from the field and did not score until the 12:19 mark when senior guard Kaylee Meyers sank a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 10-2.

After the Pointers went back up by 10 at 14-4, the Redbirds fought their way back into the game by breaking off on a 13-2 run to grab their first — and only — lead of the night at 17-16. Junior Brenna McDonald netted the go-ahead basket with 6:49 remaining in the half, but Meyers was whistled for her second foul just moments later sending her to the bench for much of the remainder of the half.

Senior Kyla Lindsey put the Pointers back into the lead, and then freshman Mallory Lindsey buried back-to-back 3-pointers to extend MP’s lead to 24-17 with 4:06 to go in the half.

The Pointers held a 28-22 lead at the intermission.

A basket by Meyers to start the second half cut the Pointer lead to four, but the guests responded with a quick 10-2 burst to push the lead back to double digits.

Meyers and fellow senior Kathleen Mathias combined to score eight straight points to pull the ‘Birds back within four with around 11 to play, however that would be as close as the hosts would get as the Pointers took advantage of numerous opportunities from the foul line to put Darlington away.

Point went to the line 20 times over the final 10:27 of the game and connected on 12 of their free throws to lock down the victory. 

A free throw by Mathias brought the ‘Birds within seven with 4:36 remaining, but the Pointers limited the hosts to just one field goal the rest of the way while going 7-for-10 from the line to run away with a 14-point victory and avenge a one-point loss to Darlington from earlier in the season.

Junior Nicole Johnson scored 11 of her game-high 17 points in the second half, and senior Mckenna Reichling went 7-for-8 at the stripe in the second half to finish with 12 points for the Pointers, who closed the night shooting 17-for-28 from the line.

Mallory Lindsey added eight points with seniors Mara Aschliman and Morgan James netting six apiece for Point.

Mathias scored 10 of her team-high 13 points in the second half in an attempt to rally the Redbirds, while Meyers finished with 11 points and McDonald chipped in with eight.

Junior center Allison Thompson sparked the Redbirds on defense off the bench by blocking nine shots and pulling down 10 rebounds to go along with her four points. Junior Marissa Gould sank the team’s only trey and finished with five points for the ‘Birds.

Darlington hosts streaking Southwestern (8-7, 4-4) in a SWAL game on Friday, Jan. 25, and has a non-conference game at Dodgeville (6-10) on Tuesday, Jan. 29.