A.J. Snipes takes on Kale Mills in Wellington-Clearwater battle.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — It has been a tough week for the Crusaders. Tuesday, the Wellington boys lost by two to Mulvane. On Friday, Wellington lost to Clearwater 53-49 in a game that wasn’t decided until the final four seconds.

Both games were ones Wellington had hoped and could have won.

The Crusaders now must travel to the always overwhelming Wichita Collegiate school sitting at 1-3 in the Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League Div. IV and 2-5 overall.

“We decided not to play for 2 1/2 quarters and it cost us,” said Rick Roitman, Wellington head boys basketball coach. “When we decided to run our offense, and do the things that we practiced, we did pretty well and whittled it down to two.”

At the 7 minute mark of the fourth quarter, Wellington was down 39-31 before the Crusaders went on a 12-6 run to pull within two with a little more than a minute to play. 

Ian King’s two free throws and a lay up on simultaneous possessions, made it 45-43 Clearwater. Then with 1:23 to play, on the next possession, the Crusaders missed three consecutive inside-the-paint bucket which would have tied the game.

Then for the rest of the game, Indians’ Collin Ellis found his way to the foul line where he would shoot eight free throw attempts, making six.

“We kept fouling the wrong guy,” Roitman said. “In one sequence, we nearly tackled one of the two players we were focusing on, but Ellis seemed to always make it back to the line.”

Wellington was hoping for at least a split this week as it jockeys for position in the Clearwater tournament in a couple of weeks. Like Mulvane, Clearwater was beatable with a 2-3 record and 1-2 in the AV-CTL DIV going in.

In the first quarter, Wellington scraped off a 11-10 lead, but was then sunk by a lackluster second quarter that saw the Indians outscore the Dukes 14-5 and lead 24-16 at the half.

That quarter proved to be the difference. Wellington was chasing Clearwater for the rest of the game, and never could get over the hump despite a spirited final minutes.

Wellington was led by Snipes with 25 points, while King had 18.

Clearwater’s Kale Mills scored 16.

Clearwater 53 Wellington 49

Clearwater    10    14       14      15        53

Wellington    11     5         15      18       49

Clearwater:  Wells 6, Liebenberg 8, Beatty 6, Ellis 8, Mills 16, Curless 8.

Wellington: Phelps 2, Snipes 25, King 18, Boyer 4.

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