Carter Burnett takes over the fourth quarter.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — In front of a raucous crowd in Crusader gymnasium, the Wellington boys extended their season with 50-40 victory over Buhler in the first round of sub-state Tuesday evening.

Wellington will now travel to Towanda to play Circle in the sub-state championship on Friday at 7 p.m.

The Red Crusaders held the Maroon Crusaders to just 36.6 percent shooting on its way to victory.

Although the stats don’t reflect it, Wellington sophomore Carter Burnett literally seized this game in the fourth quarter.

Jack Wright led Wellington with 15 points.

With 3:22 to play, Buhler had completed a 3-point play to narrow the margin to 42-39. Wellington head coach Joe Newman called a timeout. The Crusaders came out with the play of the game with a full-court fast-break layup completed by Burnett. He then stole the ball on the next possession and hit another layup. He would then score again after another steal on the next possession.

“One thing about Carter is you never have to worry about his effort,” Newman said. “The kid plays hard every single possession. The baller finds energy and has a lot of it.”

Wellington eventually opened up a double-digit lead, and the Buhler coach pulled his senior starters to recognize them for their final game with about a minute to play. Nobody would have expected that at the 4-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

The win was sweet revenge for the Red Crusaders, which Buhler had knocked out of the first round on two previous occasions. It is a bit of an anomaly, but the two teams have met one another in the first round of sub-state for three consecutive years. Wellington has had to take a trip up there for the last two years, losing both times.

This time the Red Crusaders were at home as the No. 6 seed and Buhler as the No. 11 seed in the Class 4A-West. The win was the Wellington boys’ first since 2016, when it traveled and beat Augusta.

Newman said going in Buhler was a good match-up for Wellington because they were not a particularly good shooting team but could jam the ball inside. That plays to the Dukes’ strength as they are physical inside and flourish with the zone.

Buhler couldn’t hit the water for much of the game, rimming out on five consecutive possession. The Maroon was especially awful beyond the arch, going 6 of 23 from the three-point line. Wellington wasn’t tearing it up beyond the arch either going 3 of 11. But they held their own inside shooting 59.3 percent going 16-of-27.

Malachi Rogers vs. Buhler.

“Statistically, we are a poor shooting team, so it was nice we got a few go into the hole,” Newman said. “Statistically, we are a poor shooting team, but with our personnel, we should shoot the ball a lot better than we do.  We’ve talked with guys about shot selection and made some small tweaks to their mechanics.”

Wellington opened with an 11-7 lead and held a 26-20 halftime advantage. Buhler narrowed the margin two, 36-34 going into the fourth. At that point, this game had the look of another one of those buzzer-beating situations Wellington has seen so many times this year. But the Red Crusaders immediately established the momentum with two quick steals and scores to build up a six-point lead. Buhler could only pull within three.

Now, Wellington meets Circle for the third time this season. The Thunderbirds defeated Ulysses 59-51 in the other sub-state game. Wellington lost to Circle by one point in the final 10 seconds after leading throughout in the Chaparral Tournament Championship. Two weeks later, Circle came in and beat Wellington like a drum 66-35.

Banks Hinshaw vs. Buhler.

“The difference in those two games was we defended and took care of the basketball at Chaparral,” Newman said. “At home, we did not.”

Wellington, which toppled Collegiate a week ago, will need its best effort on the road this Friday night. A big upset against the 18-3 Thunderbirds would give Wellington its first state tournament berth since 2015.

The full stats can be found here: Wellington-Buhler sub-state stats

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