Worth County was ousted by Platte Valley in the first round of districts 44-40 Tuesday, February 24th. The effort was there, but they were once again ice-cold from the field. Kristen Tracy missed a shot in the high post that would have tied it, and Worth County overextended itself trying to foul as Platte Valley cashed in at the other end as time expired.
Rylee Ruckman scored 12 points in her final game. Audrey Runde also had 12, while Megan Tracy had 6, Kristen Tracy 6, and Kambree Briner 4.
Kristen Tracy had 5 boards, as did Rylee Ruckman and Kambree Briner. Briner had 5 assists. Rylee Ruckman had 4 steals. Worth County shot better from distance than from inside the arc; they were 9 for 25 from the 3-point line to stay in the game, while they were 4 for 17 from inside the circle. They only made eight trips to the line, making five.
Worth County won 18 games for the season, the most they had since the Anna Gladstone era in 2019-2020. They started out by beating Mercer 38-30, a game that looked ugly at the time with Mercer having a long year the year before but which looked better as the season progressed with the Cards going on to win 19 games. They looked like they would dominate the area, beating Platte Valley, Stanberry, and Albany in the Albany Tournament to win it. They beat North Nodaway and NEN to run their record to 6-0, but then proceeded to drop their next three and fall out of the conference race with losses to King City and Albany.
They righted the ship with wins over Braymer, North Andrew, Stanberry again, and North Nodaway again. They fell to Stanberry, only to avenge their loss to King City at the Stanberry Tournament to take third place.
They proceeded to beat 20-win Princeton 30-27, in a game in which Briner was the only player from either squad who was hitting her shots. They trailed by 10 against North Harrison in the fourth quarter, only to come back to win 43-37. They only trailed by three to Rock Port going into the fourth before falling by 13. They put Nodaway Valley away early, then hung a season-high 62 on an improving Pattonsburg squad to run their win total to nine out of 11.
But sometimes, hitting a peak performance can be followed by a letdown, and Worth County fell to St. Joseph Christian 38-32 before falling to 23-win Mound City 46-37. They righted the ship against South Holt and looked on their way to beating East Atchison when Kambree Briner reinjured a shoulder that she had injured in softball the summer before. Without Briner in the lineup, they struggled to take care of the ball as Briner would always occupy the defense and force them to guard her, opening everyone else up. Teams could afford to be a lot more aggressive with her on the bench. They barely hung on and won against a 10-win East Atchison squad, posted a solid win against Platte Valley, but fell hard against a Maysville squad that enjoyed their best season in a while.
They got Briner back for districts, but Platte Valley has always elevated their game come district time and had girls that had not scored all year step up and score in the district game.
The Tigers lose Ruckman and Rayleigh Smith, but get back Megan Tracy, Kristen Tracy, Kambree Briner, Keira Hardy, and Audrey Runde. Kynlee Steele showed the ability to grab rebounds off the bench, while Kennedy Murphy could be a force on the boards in the future as well. Incoming freshman Brooklyn Smith is playing travel ball whenever she can and has the potential to be one of the best players the Tigers have ever produced. The goal of the Tigers will be to get more players out for basketball so they can have more depth. Platte Valley, which beat Worth County in districts, had 21 players out for basketball, while Worth County only had nine.
No comments:
Post a Comment