Worth County stunned perennial powerhouse Mercer in its first game of the season, only to come back down to earth against Platte Valley in the first round of the Albany Tournament. The challenge was to see how they would respond after a loss of that nature.
But this group usually bounced back after a loss in softball; while they had an up and down year, they rarely let a single loss become two or three in a row.
Pattonsburg was supposed to kill the Tigers on paper; while they graduated some key pieces from last year’s state quarterfinalist squad, they still had Katelyn Jones. Besides a 43-41 Tiger victory in 2022 in the same building, the Panthers had Worth County’s number since the end of the 2019-20 season. Sure enough, in the first quarter, despite Worth County’s best efforts to contain her, Katelyn Jones went off for six points in the period. The question for Pattonsburg was to find scoring help for her; they found an answer in Kinsley Johnson, who added another six in the period, while Addie Iddings added a 3-pointer. Pattonsburg led the whole period and led 15-12 after one.
But then, something funny happened. Everyone for Worth County started going off at once, with Audrey Runde hitting eight points, Megan Tracy scoring twice in the high post, and Rylee Ruckman adding a 3-pointer. Despite horrific foul trouble and Pattonsburg burning three of their timeouts, Worth County took a 28-15 lead after scoring 16 unanswered points in a 4+ minute span.
The lead was by no means safe as Worth County only has seven players, and Katelyn Jones began to carry the Panthers on her shoulders, getting five points and Johnson adding a 3-pointer as they cut it to 32-22 at the half.
The third quarter was supposed to be the time when Worth County wore down and Pattonsburg was supposed to get back in the game. The horrific foul trouble continued to mount, with Keira Hardy getting her third foul and Rylee Ruckman and Audrey Runde both getting their fourth trying to guard Jones, who had 13 in the period. As Kristen Tracy came out bleeding at one point, the Panthers closed to within 40-31 before she came back in and scored five straight to get the lead up to 45-31.
Pattonsburg had another push in them, with Jones slashing to the rim for a 3-point play and getting a lob pass from Johnson and then Kisha Davis connecting at the start of the fourth quarter to make it 47-39.
But then Worth County started stalling at the six minute mark and managed to stop the bleeding, keeping the lead at 10. Finally, the dagger came when Audrey Runde stepped through a defender to hit a 3-pointer to make it 56-43 with 50 seconds left and then took a charge on Jones on the other end before Kristen Tracy hit a shot from the wing.
Kristen Tracy had 22 points. Audrey Runde had 16, Rylee Ruckman 7, Kambree Briner 5, and Keira Hardy and Megan Tracy 4. Kristen Tracy had 16 boards for the Tigers. Kambree Briner had 9 assists.
No comments:
Post a Comment