Wamego 45 Cowgirls 31
A night after suffering heart-break, the Wamego Lady Red Raiders bounced back Friday night with a home victory over Abilene. Thursday night, Clay Center’s Shelby Siebold hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Lady Tigers a 48-47 victory over Wamego. The two teams will play again Tuesday night at Clay Center.
Friday night, Abilene put up a fight in the first half but Wamego eventually pulled away. The Lady Red Raiders got up by as many as 16 points in the fourth quarter. The Cowgirls led 5-3 at the end of the first quarter. Wamego used a 9-0 run in the second quarter to get up by as many as 9 points and led 19-12 at halftime.
The Lady Red Raiders led 31-20 at the end of the third quarter. Wamego used 15-3 run that bridged the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth to blow the game open. Wamego improved to 12-4, 5-1 with the victory and completed season sweep of Abilene. The Cowgirls fell to 3-11, 1-5 with the loss. The Cowgirls were led by Abi Lillard, who finished with a game-high 12 points. Wamego was led in scoring by Ryan Alderson with 10 points. The Lady Red Raiders play 10 girls and all 10 scored. Abilene will host Hays on Tuesday.
Wamego 57 Abilene 56
The Abilene Cowboys had their roles reversed Friday night, from what took place Monday in their win at Concordia. Monday, Abilene finished the game on a 9-0 run in the final 1:44 to get the victory. Friday night, the Cowboys led 56-51 with 1:14 to play in the game. Wamego would go on to finish the game on a 6-0 run. They started the run with a three-pointer from Jacob Fritz to cut the deficit to 56-54 with 1:05 to play. Fritz had a huge night. He finished with a game-high 23 points and connected on 7 three-pointers. In the first victory over Abilene, he had only 9 points and was just 1-5 on three-point shots. On the ensuing possession, the Cowboys missed the front end of a one and one. Wamego would then get a lay-up and free-throw from Burk Springer to give the Red Raiders the lead with 14.5 seconds to play. Abilene got two good looks at the basket on the final possession but couldn’t convert.
It was a tight game throughout. The two teams were tied at 15 at the end of first quarter. Wamego led 28-24 at the end of the first half and the teams were tied at 41 at the end of the third quarter.
Abilene fell to 8-4, 4-3 with the loss. The Cowboys were led by Avery Bryson, who finished with a career-high 19 points. Kaleb Becker also had a huge night with 17. The Cowboys are schedule to host Garden Plain Monday in a boy’s only match-up.
Wamego improved to 11-4, 5-1 with the victory and are in sole possession of first place in the NCKL after the victory. The Red Raiders have a tough remaining schedule as they finish the season with four straight road games at Clay Center, Chapman, Concordia and Marysville.
