Friday, November 14, 2014

Jessi Badell Gets 12; Junior High Girls Survive Longhorns

Jessi Badell got a career high with 12 points and Worth County's girls survived a late South Nodaway rally, holding them off 31-25 Thursday night. They also beat Jefferson by 4, and remain with only one loss on the year. Anna Gladstone also had 12 for the Tigers.

The team learned last week that they would be without Regan Allee for the rest of the year (arm). They had to find some outside shooting, and they got it with Jessi's shooting. South Nodaway, a team with nearly all 7th graders, had gone down without a fight against Northeast Nodaway. But Eryn Kemper had the hot hand for South Nodaway to keep them in the game down only 8-6 after one; she had all of their six points. Point guard Kaylin LaMaster was relentlessly pushing it up the floor and creating scoring chances.

Worth County finally started to pull away in the second quarter as Abbi Caddenhead, starting in place of Allee, got a putback and Anna Gladstone scored off a pair of backdoor layups off passes from Jessi Badell and Kristen New. Haley Hunt added a putback and Worth County was up 16-10 at the break.

Both Jessi Badell and Anna Gladstone got going early in the third; Anna's shot from the left wing off a pass from New made it 23-10. But then Hannah Wilmes launched a 3-pointer from the corner and South Nodaway was right back in it, down 23-15 with 1:22 left in the third.

Anna Gladstone scored off a pair of steals to keep Worth County in front 29-17 with 4:52 left, but South Nodaway, with some fouls to give, could afford to be very aggressive down the stretch, cutting Worth County's lead to 29-23 and keeping Worth County scoreless for four minutes. But then they finally had to foul and Jessi Badell hit a free throw with 24.8 seconds left to make it a three possession game at 30-23. Kristen New added another free throw before Wilmes scored a meaningless basket at the buzzer.

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