Lady Broncos fall short of state berth as ‘20-21 season ends

The Wauneta-Palisade girls’ basketball season ended Feb. 26 night in Kearney with a 61-78 loss to Sterling (15-7) in their district final.
Coming in as the ninth seed to the Jets’ eighth seed, WP Head Coach Matt Cox liked the match up and the Broncos came out firing.
“I think the thing that I was most impressed with was the way we came out and started swinging. We have had a tendency to feel opponents out if we didn’t know them very well, and there was none of that,” Cox said.
Five points by Cali Cox had the Broncos within two points midway through the first quarter.
A layup by GraCee Goings and three pointer by C. Cox off an inbounds play tied the game at 12. Another trey by C. Cox gave the Broncos a 15-12 lead.
WP came out, started dropping long 3s, running fast breaks and defending and pressing really well, Cox said.
Despite giving up the final four points of the first quarter, WP quickly took the lead in the second quarter with a three pointer by Goings and pushed their advantage to four points, 20-16, after a put back by Peyton Cox.
Sterling responded with layups to tie the game, before Haylee Sandman put WP up by two points with a layup of her own.
The teams traded the lead, Sterling making a three pointer and Going answering with a two, to give WP a 24-23 lead with four minutes left in the half.
But Sterling put seven points on the board in 90 seconds which WP could only answer with an H. Sandman basket and C. Cox free throw. The Broncos trailed 27-35 at halftime.
After a Sterling basket to open the second half to give the Jets a 10 point lead, WP found some answers.
Alexa Sandman made a jumper and H. Sandman converted a conventional three point play thanks to a breakaway layup. Within five points, 32-37, the Broncos closed the gap to 37-39 on a C. Cox three pointer and layup.
Sterling three pointers around another A. Sandman basket increased the deficit to 39-45. H. Sandman cut into the lead with a bucket and Chloe Stehno had the answer to two Jets’ free throws.
Only trailing by four points, 43-47, the game started to slip out of WP’s reach with 2:39 left in the third quarter. Sterling closed the quarter on a 10-2 run then scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter, as well.
A three pointer by A. Sandman and put back by P. Cox were WP’s only points for the first 4:30 of the fourth while Sterling was more than happy to wile away the clock.
A. Sandman added five more points down the stretch to go with four points from H. Sandman and two free throws by P. Cox.
“I loved the way we competed right up until the end. Once again, it was a team that if you were behind going into the fourth, they were going to stall you out, but the girls fought it the whole way,” Cox said.
C. Cox led WP with 17 points. A. Sandman and H. Sandman also finished in double figures with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
“I loved the way we competed against Sterling, the girls played really well,” Cox said.
But much like WP’s subdistrict final against Maywood/Hayes Center, which advanced to state with a 47-39 win over Diller-Odell, too many turnovers were too much to overcome.
“I thought we broke their press really efficiently, but instead of pulling it off, they made a couple adjustments and it gave us some fits,” Cox said.
He added, that if you told him WP was going to score 61 points against Sterling, he would have said, “We’ll see you in Lincoln!”
“It was easily the best offensive game of our season, the difference was just some untimely turnovers that they converted for points,” Cox said.
Two players did the majority of the damage for the Jets. Sophomore Macy Richardson scored 30 points and junior Dakotah Ludemann scored 24.
State tournament
Besides MHC (24-2), South Platte (20-2), which WP beat 63-59 Dec. 18, also made it to state as the sixth seed in D1.
Both teams lost in the tournament’s first round. The Wolves lost to eventual runner up Falls City Sacred Heart 31-42 and South Platte lost 37-46 to Hartington CC.
Sterling lost to state champion Humphrey St. Francis in the first round 41-73.
SPVA’s Bridgeport won its Class C1 first round game over Lourdes CC 66-48 before falling to eventual champion Crofton in the second round and BRLD in the third place game.

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