by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The winter basketball season has officially arrived at USD 353 as the Knight basketball teams strapped it on against middle schoolers from El Dorado Tuesday evening.

The eight WMS roundballer teams went 4-4 against El Dorado. The Knights teams will continue play Thursday with the boys traveling to Haysville West and the girls hosting Haysville West. Game time for the boys are 4 p.m., while the girls play at 5 p.m.

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Eighth grade girls:

Wellington A 53 El Dorado 27

Scorers: Rylee Rusk 14, Mykiland French 13, Myriland French 11, Katrina Dvorak 4, Kadin Brown 3, Alexis Patee 3, Allison Buresh 3, Lexi Clift 2.

Coach Jeff Frazee comments:

“It was a great start to the season. We scored seven 3’s! Not sure if I’ve seen that at a middle school girls game before. I’m very impressed with their defense. El Dorado didn’t score until the second quarter. If I’d let that top five stay in and play hard, man defense they just might get a shutout. Believe me, they ask. Big time competitors. That with their talent they might accomplish great things as Crusaders! Hope they stick together and remain focused through high school. It’s a pleasure coaching them.”

Wellington B 53 El Dorado 17

Scorers: Kadin Brown 10, Alexis Patee 7, Katrina Dvorak 6, Trinity Mason 4, Kari Dvorak 4, Kady Arebalo 2.

Seventh grade girls:

Wellington A 38 El Dorado 27

Scorers: Ali Zeka 20, Airalyn Frame 16, Grace Westmoreland 1.

Statistics: Zeka had five rebounds and two steals. Frame had eight rebounds and four steals. Westmoreland had 10 rebounds and one steal. Nikki Peninger had four rebounds and 2 steals.

Coach Jaedyn Ledesma comments: 

I think this was a great start for my girls. These girls are mentally tough and it showed on a Tuesday night. There was not one point in the entire game where I didn’t see 100 percent effort.  After watching game film, we have room to get better and a few things to fix before our game on Thursday night. These girls are going to continue to improve and I can’t wait to see where this season takes us. I couldn’t have asked for a better group my first year as head coach. 

El Dorado B 32 Wellington 12

Josey Wolf 4, TearLynn Stoddard 2, Olivia Speagle 2, Melissa Black 2, Sierra Davis 2

Eighth grade boys:

El Dorado A 38 Wellington 28.

Wellington B 26 El Dorado 20.

Seventh grade boys:

El Dorado A 34 Wellington 29

Scorers: Nathan Hilt 14, Jay Ybarra 10, Korbin Jones 3, Deitrek Gill 2.

El Dorado B 35 Wellington 31

Scorers: Blake McCreary 9, Logan Swingle 7, Dominic Ybarra 6, Carson Rademacher 5, Michael Glover 4.

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