55 points, the school record for rebounds in a game, and a win. Just another week in the life of Lady Tigers’ sophomore, Kaemyn Bekemeier.
Her outstanding week started with a loss against state-ranked Willard Tuesday night, but Bekemeier had a night to remember regardless. She led the team in scoring and rebounds, netting 25 points and grabbing an insane 23 rebounds. Her performance on the boards was more than enough the take the Republic record for rebounds in a single game away from current RHS counselor Callie Newton, whose record of 18 rebounds had stood for almost thirty years. Coach Kris Flood knew that she had a lot of rebounds, but didn’t know that it was a record-setting night.
“Yeah, we had to go back and make sure that we had the count on it. She did, she ended up with 25 points, 23 rebounds, a pretty good night. But, you know, going back and watching the film, they weren’t just on the defensive end, a lot of em were her on the offensive end. Crashing the boards and getting a lot of second-chance opportunities for herself. And she’s been doing that quite a bit, she’s getting a lot of offensive rebounds in her recent games. But the other night she just put it together, and it always seemed like she was around the ball. That’s one of those accomplishments that you don’t realize until it’s over.”
Bekemeier followed up Tuesday’s game with a big win over Joplin in a game where she had 20 first-half points, on pace to break her own scoring record, but sat most of the second half because of the Lady Tigers’ large lead.
These seemingly routine performances from Kaemyn Bekemeier, just a sophomore, has Republic excited about the current, and future, state of Lady Tiger basketball.
