Kristin New, Kaylee McElvain Make Key Defensive Plays as Tigers Win

Worth County’s girls held off Wellington-Napoleon 49-45 Tuesday night and advanced to the Sectionals for the second year in a row. For the second straight time, Worth County beat someone with a better record as Wellington-Napoleon had a better record than Worth County coming into the game at 22-4. Mercer, who Worth County beat in Eagleville for the District Title game, was 21-3. Tri-County, who Worth County played in District Semifinals, had a similar record at 16-7.

But it was Worth County who got off to their usual hot start, as Anna Gladstone scored the team’s first seven points and the Tigers raced out to a 20-9 lead. That was their typical winning formula – get out to a fast start, and then force other teams to play catchup.

Wellington-Napoleon had come in with a good record, but they spent the whole evening chipping away, while Worth County held them off with balanced scoring and strong free throw shooting, going 16 for 28 from the line. Anna Gladstone had 14 for the game, Kristin New 13, Kaylee McElvain 10, Jessi Badell 8, and Megan Cassavaugh, who has gotten better every single time since earning a spot in the starting lineup two weeks ago, had 4.

Wellington-Napoleon got to within 26-18 at the half and to within 37-30 after three before scoring the first four points of the fourth quarter to make it 37-34. They got their deficit down to 39-37 before Worth County restored order for the time being, scoring on their next two possessions to go up 43-37 with 3:54 left.

The Wellington-Napoleon squad cut it to three again at 45-42 with 1:59 left in the game. Worth County ran it down to 56.8 left and moved back ahead by four at 46-42 with a free throw. But all of a sudden, Ayden Shannon connected with a step-back three and it was a one point deficit with 45.9 seconds left.

Once again, Worth County made one of two from the line with 36.1 seconds left. Wellington-Napoleon had a chance to tie or take the lead down 47-45, but Kaylee McElvain got a tieup to give the ball back to Worth County. It was the second straight game that Kaylee had gotten a key tieup to quell a rally by the other side. Worth County made one of two with 22.4 seconds left to make it three, and Wellington-Napoleon needed one from long distance to tie.

Ayden Shannon tried a stepback three to tie the game up for Wellington-Napoleon, but this time, Kristin New anticipated the move and blocked the shot and Worth County got the defensive board. This time, Worth County made it two possessions with 7.1 seconds left and came away with the win.

The win guaranteed that a team from the GRC West would go to state, since Stanberry and North Andrew were on the other side of the bracket. Stanberry went on to beat North Andrew 69-39 in the nightcap. The game marked the first time since 2010 that two teams from the Grand River Conference met in the Quarterfinals.