by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — It was Senior Night at Crusaders gymnasium and although there wasn’t a lot of poetic basketball, it was a good evening for the silver and red.

Wellington boys would finally topple Clearwater 50-39. Earlier in the evening the Wellington girls beat the Indians 34-22.

Now comes sub-state. The pairings will be released Saturday by the Kansas State High School Activities Association.

“We are back to square one,” said Brian Buchanan, Wellington head boy basketball coach. “We are 0-0 and from this point forward it will be about who wants it the most.” 

Both Wellington teams have a shot of winning their respective substates. The boys will be playing at 6 p.m. on Thursday. The girls will be playing at 6 p.m. on Friday. Both teams will await word on whether or not they will play Mulvane or Rose Hill.

For the boys, Wellington has beaten the top seed Winfield team at its place already three weeks ago. If the Crusaders want to go to the Class 4A State Tournament in Salina they will have to do it again.

The Wellington girls will be the top seed going into the Winfield sub-state. They have won against all three teams during the regular season.

On Thursday night, it was about finishing business.

The Crusader boys finished the regular season at 10-10 with a victory over Clearwater. The Indians had beaten the Crusaders twice before, including the Chaparral Tournament Championship. One could argue those games were easily Wellington’s worst games of the seasons.

But Thursday, Wellington was pretty much in control. Having come off a last-second heartbreaker loss to Circle on Tuesday, the Crusaders were in no mood to lose another one. And they led this game from start to finish.

Wellington opened with an 11-6 first-quarter lead. They built a 27-15 halftime advantage. Although Clearwater had cut the lead to six on a couple of occasions in the third, Wellington would re-up the lead to 37-29 going into the fourth quarter.

Clearwater would stick around trailing by seven with 1:26 to play. But with the Indians being called for a 10-second violation, that would be all there was to write. The Crusaders would outscore Clearwater 5-1 in the final minute to win by 11.

Trevor Nance led the Dukes with 22 points.

In the girls game, Wellington capped off a 13-7 season and an 11-2 run down the stretch. In the final half of league play, Wellington was 4-1 with its only loss coming in an overtime heart-breaker to Andale. And this was done without its second leading scorer Avery Rusk, who is out with a stress fracture.

The game Thursday, wasn’t their best. Wellington did what it had to do. It built a 12-2 lead in the first quarter and was in front 21-10 at the half. The Lady Dukes would be outscored 10-8 in the third but would outscore the Indians in the fourth 7-2 for the 12-point win.

Lauryn Snipes led the Crusaders with 14 points.

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