MONTGOMERY CITY, Mo. - The North Callaway Ladybirds stretched their winning streak to six games by outlasting the Montgomery County Lady Wildcats in a Eastern Missouri Conference victory littered with fouls Thursday night.
North Callaway and Montgomery County committed 21 and 29 fouls, respectively, and had five starters foul out between them. Junior guard Kyla Bertschinger and senior forward Sam Schaefer both fouled out for the Ladybirds.
In the process, North Callaway made just 18-of-35 free throws (51 percent) and the Lady Wildcats converted 20-of-30 chances (67 percent) from the foul line.
"It's always better to win ugly than to lose pretty," Ladybirds head coach Morgan Beamer said. "The bench gave us some very valuable minutes with our foul trouble."
North Callaway (8-1, 3-0 EMO) tallied the game's first eight points and was up 18-9 after the first quarter. The Ladybirds built a 13-point edge late in the second quarter, but Montgomery County used a closing run to narrow North Callaway's lead to 33-26 at halftime.
The Ladybirds outscored the Lady Wildcats 10-8 in the third quarter and owned a 43-34 advantage going into the final 8 minutes.
Bertschinger tallied 13 points to pace four players in double figures for North Callaway. Sophomore guard Kenzie Ausfahl supplied 12 points, eight steals and three assists, while junior guard Nicole Emmons also had 12 points and three assists.
Junior forward Allie Schlueter - who transferred to North Callaway this year from Montgomery County - added 11 points and collected a team-high nine rebounds.
Anna Henke topped the Lady Wildcats (5-5, 2-1) with a game-high 15 points and Kayla Schmidt contributed 10.
The Ladybirds (0-7) dropped the junior varsity contest 40-21. Freshman guard Daelyn Schmauch finished with a team-high 14 points.
North Callaway - receiving the fourth seed - faces No. 5 host South Callaway for the second time in a week in the first round of the South Callaway Tournament at 7:30 p.m. Monday. The game will be played at the high school. The Ladybirds clipped the Lady Bulldogs 43-42 on Jan. 2 at Kingdom City.