Northeast Nodaway had every reason to come out of the King City Tournament with their heads held high Friday as they took second in the tournament, falling 33-29 to King City, which is having its best season in recent memory at 16-4 as of the conclusion of the tournament. King City has an impressive win over Mercer and a close loss to Platte Valley to its credit along with wins over St. Joseph Christian, Stanberry, and North Andrew to its credit in the conference portion.
Early on, the nerves got to the players as they only shot three for their first seven from the line, turned the ball over, and fell behind. The score was stuck at 2-1 in King City’s favor for much of the first quarter, and the winner was likely to be the team which first got over its jitters. Finally, Zoe Tunks hit two free throws, Carleen Gilbert scored off a steal, and Taryn Hunter hit a free throw to put the Wildkats up 7-1 after one.
Northeast didn’t get its first made basket until the second quarter, when Baylie Busby’s runner cut it to 10-5. Mylee Wilmes later added two free throws, but then King City continued to pull away behind baskets from Clare Staley and a coast to coast look from Tunks that made the King City lead 17-7 at the half.
Tunks hit a 3-pointer early in the third to put King City up 20-9, but then two factors helped swing the momentum back in Northeast’s favor, besides the fact they had gotten over the championship jitters. They took much better care of the ball in the second half, turning it over only three times after turning it over nine times in the first. Also, only of King City’s most physical players, Tacee Catlett, got her third and fourth fouls. Busby finally started finding the range, hitting four in a row from the line and hitting Hadley DeFreece for three, and all of a sudden, it was 20-16 with 5:24 left in the third.
Taryn Hunter hit a guarded three with a hand in her face and Zoey Tunks hit a pullup with another hand in her face as King City rebuilt the lead back up to 25-16. But Dalanie Auffert hit an inside shot and later added a free throw to cut it back to 25-19 after three. Then, Auffert connected on a third chance putback to cut it to 25-21 to start the fourth. Busby scored off a drive and then added two free throws to knot it at 25. Busby got a steal and a layup and all of a sudden, Northeast was up 27-25 with 4:52 left in the game.
But Zoey Tunks hit a baseline runner with a hand in her face and all of a sudden, Northeast couldn’t buy a board down the stretch as King City built the lead back up. Manion Leverrier hit a free throw to break the tie and put King City back in front 28-27 after a third chance board and Hunter added two free throws to make it 30-27 with 2:26 left.
Busby missed a tough shot and then Hunter struck again to make it 32-27. Busby hit a runner with 1:43 left, King City missed a 1-1 after running it down to 48 seconds, but Auffert missed two free throws that would have cut it to one. Zoey Tunks hit a free throw with 24 seconds left and Northeast missed two shots that would have cut it to two down the stretch.
Baylie Busby had 16 points for the Bluejays. Dalanie Auffert had 7, Hadley DeFreece 3, Mylee Wilmes 2, and Jill Boswell 1.
Dalanie Auffert had 1 block.
Dalanie Auffert had 14 boards. Baylie Busby had 7, Jill Boswell 5, Sasha Deardorff 4, and Hadley DeFreece and Mylee Wilmes 2 each.
Baylie Busby had 5 assists. Hadley DeFreece had 2.
Baylie Busby had 8 tips. Hadley DeFreece had 6, Dalanie Auffert 2, and Jill Boswell and Mylee Wilmes 1 each.
Baylie Busby had 6 steals. Hadley DeFreece had 3 and Dalanie Auffert 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment