Worth County's girls threw a scare into King City, a team which had beaten them by 32 the week before. However, they were denied their first victory once again after building up 7-point halftime lead as the Wildkats had too many weapons to stay down for long as they came back to win 42-31. The Tigers had a season-low 18 turnovers against King City; however, they had one missed shot after another in the second half. There was little for Coach April Healy to say afterwards. "Considering how much we lost to them the first time, we played much better," she said. "But we have to quit rushing shots."
Worth County, looking to end its season-long futility, scored the first four points of the game as Haley Green got untracked inside and Jessica Borey had a drive to the basket. But King City, whose inside game was stymied by the Tiger defense this time around, began spraying shots from outside with success. Addisyn Derks, who did not score in the last encounter between the two teams, led the charge along with Courtney Walters and Shelby Stoll as King City came back to lead 12-7; Jessica Borey's 3-pointer from the left wing was the only tally for the Tigers for that stretch.
But Ashley Reynolds came off the bench and sparked the Tigers as they started to play some of their best ball all year. She had an immediate impact as she got a putback and a pair of free throws to close out the first quarter with Worth County very much in the game down 12-11.
Haley Green opened the second quarter by cleaning up on a Jessica Borey steal and then Brooke Adams scored from the left wing to put the Tigers up 15-12. Jessica Borey answered an Amanda Snodgrass free throw with a 3-pointer and the teams traded buckets for the rest of the half as Haley Green scored off an off-balance shot in the paint and Brooke Gilland scored off a kickout from Lauren Null as the Tigers led 22-17. On defense, the Tigers were playing lights-out as Amanda Snodgrass and Kaitlyn Lewis were each held to one point; the Wildkat post duo had burned the Tigers in the previous meeting between the two teams.
Things were looking roses for the Tigers to start the third quarter as Haley Green took a lob pass and turned it into two free throws and Lauren Null had a nice fake and 15-footer to put the Tigers up 26-19, its biggest lead of the game. But all of a sudden, something must have snapped as all of Worth County's shots suddenly started clanging off the rim while Lewis began running wild from the inside and in transition. Derks continued to spray outside shots for the Wildkate, and the lead had disappeared by the three minue mark of the third quarter.
Jessica Borey finally broke the dry spell with a drive against the King City press, but Snodgrass and Derks connected before the end of the third period to put King City up for good at 33-28. As in their other heartbreaker against North Nodaway, they could not respond to the other team's runs as they could only muster a putback by Lauren Null at the start of the fourt and a free throw by Reynolds with 4:21 left in the fourth.
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