Autum Barthelman achieves milestone in win over Iowa Valley

Autum Barthelman has been one of the Lady Savages leading scorers for the better part of her time at Sigourney. Beginning in her freshman year, she finished with the third most points on the team, and has been trending up ever since. Her scoring frenzy continued on Tuesday, Dec. 12 when the Lady Savages took on Iowa Valley and won 65-42.

Coming off the heels of a disappointing loss to Washington the night before, the Lady Savages came with an aggression to win. A slew of points in the first half, poured in by Autum, Brooke Waechter and Leah Carter, had the Lady Savages sitting pretty from start to finish.

"It was nice to see how we bounced back from our loss," Lady Savages coach Zach Tremmel said. "Seeing them put up 54 points in the first half was impressive."

Sigourney was able to hit the half-century mark mainly due to making a majority of their shots, and possessing the ball more than Iowa Valley. In the previous game against Washington, the Lady Savages were only able to end up with 49 total points.

It certainly helped that the scoring was shared among some of Sigourney's best shooters, and not having to rely solely on Autum to have a strong performance. Sigourney also played stellar defense along the way, only giving up 20 first-half points to Iowa Valley.

The biggest accomplishment of all was Autum reaching the 1,000-point threshold, coming into the game just 18 points shy of hitting the mark. She hit it on the nose by ending her night with 18 points, shooting 50 percent from the field including a couple made three-pointers. Autum also had six steals, six assists and four rebounds.

Though the Lady Savages were outscored 22-11 in the second half, they were able to hold a big lead and get the win.

"It was a team effort tonight, but the huge moment for our program was seeing Autum make her 1,000th point," Tremmel said. "This is a huge accomplishment in high school basketball."

This was a long time coming for Autum, who was bound to hit the mark at some point this season. Her best season to date was finishing her junior year with 434 points, which was even more impressive considering her three-point success rate went down five percent. Through six games this year, Autum has compiled 104 points, with over a dozen games yet to play.

The Lady Savages are expecting even bigger things this season, with the scoring and leadership from Autum.

"Her athleticism is second to none, she knows how to get to the hoop and gets to the foul line a lot," Tremmel said. "She is in great shape and has stayed healthy which are big factors as well. She's been very coachable and a joy to watch. We're hoping to end off this year by taking a step further and getting this team to Des Moines."