Niebrugge added two more threes, Niemerg scored four points and Hope Bueker, who saw her first action of the season after recovering from a stress fracture in her leg, added a basket. At halftime, the Lady Shoes had a commanding 33-13 lead.
“I was able to get Hope a couple minutes each quarter,” Thompson explained. “We’ll slowly bring her back. She’ll be rusty for a little while, but it will be good to have her back.
“Hope can by a physical player, which we need,” the THS coach added. “We need her to get rebounds and score around the basket. Plus, she can shoot it as well. It was good to see her on the floor tonight.”
The final 16 minutes was simply a repeat of the first half.
After Flora’s Raegan Henson hit a three to open the third quarter, the Lady Shoes went on another 17-0 scoring spree. Niebrugge scored seven points, including her fourth made shot from long range, and Ciara Roepke added four more. When Mette scored at the 2:33 mark, the THS lead had ballooned to 50-16.
That resulted in a continually running clock in the fourth period.
Niebrugge finished with a game-high 16 points and Niemerg added 11. The Lady Shoes shot 50 percent overall, making 24-of-48 shots. They were 5-for-16 from three-point range and 8-of-14 from the foul line. Niebrugge also pulled down eight rebounds, helping T-Town to a 26-15 edge on the board.
The Lady Shoes also forced 17 turnovers, but Thompson was not pleased with her team’s defensive performance.
“We’re just not where we should be defensively,” she noted. “We lose our player we’re supposed to be guarding and we don’t recover quickly. Right now, we just can’t defend and it’s got to get better.
“I need girls that will look at the player they’re guarding and say ‘I’m not letting you score,’” Thompson added. “That’s the mentality we need, but we don’t have that yet.”
The Lady Shoes improved to 12-4 overall. They will return to action Thursday at home against Danville.