AMBOY – The Amboy Lady Clippers won three of four games and finished in third place in the eight-team Amboy Holiday Tournament held Dec. 27-30.

The Lady Clippers started out the tournament with a hard-fought 43-36 victory over Ottawa Marquette on Dec. 27.

Amboy struggled at time after having a 16-day layoff due to other schools’ COVID problems. The Lady Clippers were led by senior Olivia Dinges, who netted seven of 10 free throws in the fourth quarter and ended with 17 points, seven rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocked shots. Elly Jones made both of her free throw attempts in the fourth frame and finished with 11 points, four boards, two assists and seven steals. Lexi Ketchum made four big shots as she scored eight crucial points and had five rebounds. Courtney Ortgiesen dropped in six points and added a team-high nine rebounds. She also had five steals and three blocks. Maeve Larson rounded out the stats with one point and seven caroms.

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Amboy won its second-round game over Mendota, 47-16, on Dec. 28. All 11 of Amboy’s players saw court time and eight of them dented the scoring column.

The Lady Clippers were again led by Dinges with 18 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. Twelve of her points came on three-pointers. Jones was next with nine points, four assists and four steals. Ortgiesen had a team-high 10 rebounds and chipped in with six points and five blocked shots. Haidyn Zimmerly added three points and two steals.

Three freshmen scored in the contest. Tyrah Vaessen had five points and collected two steals, Addison Pertell had three points, and Emily Sachs scored a basket and grabbed a pair of rebounds.

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In the final game of pool play on Dec. 29, the Lady Clippers ran into a strong Serena team and dropped a 33-23 decision.

Amboy lost to Serena by eight points in November (47-39) and converted 45 percent of its field goal attempts and only had 10 turnovers that night. But the rematch in the tournament game was very physical and Amboy couldn’t match the shooting percentage or keep the turnovers to a minimum. The Lady Clippers connected on just 21 percent of their shots and only had three players on the scoring chart.

While Amboy held Serena’s second-leading scorer to one point, its all-stater, Katie Baker, pumped in 14 points to lead the victory.

Larson paced the Lady Clippers with 12 points and she hauled down five rebounds. Also, Jones had six points and two assists, Dinges tallied five points and led with seven boards, and Ortgiesen handled six caroms.

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Amboy met up with Somonauk in the third-place game on Dec. 30 and came away with a 45-28 triumph.

Dinges poured in four three-pointers on her way to a 19-point performance. She also led with 14 rebounds. Jones scored big with 15 points while dishing out three assists, followed by Larson with seven points. Ortgiesen and Ketchum each added a basket, while Ortgiesen snared seven rebounds and Zimmerly yanked down four boards.

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Serena won the tournament title. Two Amboy players – Dinges and Jones – were named to the all-tournament team.