by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Friday night’s homecoming was a bit of a mixed bag for the Crusader basketball teams. Wellington girls picked up a win over Augusta 47-30. The boys were not as fortunate losing 55-42.

Wellington girls continued their hot streak, winning their fourth straight and sixth out of seventh game. After getting off to a 2-5 start, the Lady Dukes are now 8-6.

“Augusta is the kind of team that will grind it out against you,” said Eric Adams, Wellington head girls basketball coach. “They are well coached and play great defense. Our girls were mad afterwards they didn’t play better, but I’ll take a 17-point win over that team anyday.” 

While Wellington did not set the world on fire offensively Friday night, it most certainly created an inferno defensively.

Augusta had just one field goal in the first half and three field goals after three quarters. Augusta would have just six field goals for the game, three coming late.

“Anytime you hold a team to one field goal in the first half, you are doing something right,” Adams said.

Lauryn Snipes is emerging into a premiere basketball star for the Crusaders. She scored 22 points against the Orioles. In her past three games she has scored 19, 27 and 22 points.

Augusta could be considered a trap game for the Dukes after pulling off the 51-50 upset against Buhler and looking ahead to the hugely important game against Winfield Tuesday. Of course, it was homecoming, giving the Wellington girls plenty of opportunities to be sidetracked.

“We were on the girls pretty hard in practice on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Adams said. “We didn’t want them to take this game for granted. We wanted them to know they haven’t accomplished anything yet.”

It looked like a teeth grinder early. Wellington led 9-4 at the end of one quarter, but Wellington was clearly not shooting well.

In the second quarter, Wellington opened up a 23-7 lead. Augusta never scored until about 3 minutes left in the quarter with a free throw. Snipes ended the half with a layup at the buzzer and a missed free throw thereafter.

The Crusaders would never sprint away in this contest but would slowly run away as if running a marathon in the third quarter. Eventually Wellington was in front by 19 points. Augusta had a run in which it hit two treys and two free throws on three consecutive possessions midway through the fourth quarter, but this game was never in doubt.

Wellington will now battle Winfield in a non-league game next Tuesday there. This is big for two reasons. Winfield is 7-6 and Wellington is 8-6 and the No. 1 seed in the Winfield sub-state is up for grabs.

It is also big because it will probably serve as a preview of what could be the sub-state championship between these evenly matched teams.

•••••

Wellington boys bummer

The Crusader boys had an enthusiastic crowd to back it up, but they were unable to transfer that energy to points on the hardwood.

Augusta scored six three-pointers and nab a bushel of more rebounds in its 55-42 victory. The Crusaders fall to 8-7 with a date at Winfield Tuesday.

Dustin McEachern scored 16 points for Augusta that included three 3-pointers in the first half.

Wellington led 12-11 at the end of the first quarter, before enduring one of its worst quarters of the season. Augusta went on a 15-4 second quarter run and led 26-16 at the half.

It didn’t get much better in the third quarter. After Trevor Nance opened the second half with two field goals to narrow the margin to six, Augusta doubled that lead right back and pulled away from there.

Nance led the Dukes with 21 points accounting for 50 percent of Wellington’s points.

 
Follow us on Twitter.