Covenant beats Monrovia, 44-23

In the second round of Sectional 44 action at South Putnam Friday the Monrovia Bulldogs faced off against the Covenant Christian Warriors The Warriors won 44-23 to advance to Saturday night's championship game.

The Bulldogs got here by beating Cascade in a heroic eight-point comeback with under a minute left Wednesday night against Cascade, while the Warriors crushed North Putnam.

With a low halftime score of 18-7 in favor of the Warriors, the Bulldogs forced them to only 7-of-24 shooting keeping the game close. In return the Warriors forced 15 first half turnovers.

The third quarter resulted in much the same with six turnovers for the Bulldogs, but they still managed to score 11 points for the quarter. The Warriors still scored 14 more points.

For the game Monrovia had 26 turnovers.

"We did struggle," Monrovia coach Kyle Sawfford said. "We did turn the ball over and we struggled to score. That ends up being the difference."

Monrovia's season came to an end after the fourth quarter, but a bright spot from sophomore Alicia Whitney appeared who scored 15 points.

Covenant Christian sophomore Rachel McLimore had a game-high 18 points and teammate Kaitlyn Luikart added 15. McLimore led the team with five rebounds.

Covenant Christian will face the South Putnam Eagles Saturday night in the sectional championship at 7 p.m at South Putnam High School.

Monrovia 7 0 11 5--23

Cov Christian 9 9 14 12--44

Monrovia (7-33 7-9): Whitney 4-7 3-3 15, Hunter 2-9 3-4 5, Longere 1-2 0-0 2, Keen 0-6 1-2 1, Bennett 0-3 0-0 0, Russell 0-2 0-0 0, Speck 0-1 0-0 0, Tharp 0-1 0-0 0, Wright 0-2 0-0 0.

Covenant Christian (17-47 6-7): R. McLimore 8-16 3-3 18, Luikart 5-10 0-0 15, Joseph 2-5 0-0 4, S. McLimore 2-6 0-0 4, Johnson 0-1 2-2 2, Cleary 0-5 1-2 1.

Rebounding

Monrovia (7 OFF 22 TOT): Whitney 7, Longere 5, Hunter 4, Wright 2, Bennett 1, Keen 1, Russell 1, Tharp 1.

Covenant Christian (8 OFF 20 TOT):R. McLimore 5, S. McLimore 5, Luikart 3, Bright 2, Cleary 2, Halderman 2, Johnson 1.