by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Lauryn Snipes has had many great, great performances as a Wellington girls basketball player. But it would be hard to top Thursday’s performance against Rose Hill in the first round of the Haven Basketball Tournament.

Lauren Snipes

The senior Crusader scored 29 points including a game-tying bucket to send the game into a second overtime and then a last second buzzer-beating 30-footer to lift Wellington over Rose Hill 55-52.

“If they’re going to bank in a shot to win, you’ve got to live with the results sometimes,” Rose Hill coach Greg Welch told the Wichita Eagle. “If you get out on her too far, she’s going to go past you. She shot it, and we’re going to have to live with it.”

The Crusaders will now battle Cheney which beat Haven 55-43 in the championship semifinals tonight at 7:30 p.m. Goddard will battle Kingman in the other championship semifinal game at 6 p.m.

Wellington and Rose Hill have now split in their first two meetings. Rose Hill got the first one in the Crusader gymnasium 44-42 in overtime. If your keeping score that is three overtimes in two ballgames between these two evenly matched teams.

The Crusaders travel to Rose Hill on Feb.14. Then the two could see each other in the sub-state championship. It is probably one of the most ongoing epic battles this year between two teams in high school basketball.

Yesterday, Wellington got round two with a game that was nip and tuck throughout. The Crusaders opened with an 11-10 first quarter lead and held a 25-22 advantage at the half. Rose Hill then outscored Wellington 12-7 in the third to take a 34-32 lead going into the fourth.

Wellington would outscore Rose Hill 9-7 in the fourth quarter and the Rockets failed to hit their last second shot to send it into overtime for the second straight time.

Rose Hill eventually took a five-point lead  with less than two minutes to play in the first overtime, but a Snipes 3-pointer narrowed it to two. Wellington, which lost its home game to Rose Hill by not converting free throws down the stretch, saw the Rockets do the same thing against the Crusaders. Rose Hill missed three straight one-and-ones. That gave Snipes an opportunity to score a deuce to send the game into a second overtime.

Again, Rose Hill took a lead, only to see Wellington fight back and tie it. Then, reminiscent of the third-place state tournament game last year, Snipes would hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer from downtown.

This marked the first time the Rockets have lost all season. They were ranked No. 5 in the latest Class 4A Div 1 Kansas Basketball Coaches Association poll. Wellington has rattled off six straight to improve to 8-3. But tonight will not be easy for the Crusaders who will see a very good Cheney team, that beat a Haven team by 12 which beat Wellington in the Kingman Tournament earlier this season.

WELLINGTON – Snipes 29, Adams 9, Rusk 6, T. French 5, S. French 4, Wilson 2.

ROSE HILL – Woods 16, Van Driel 14, Herman 12, Simoneau 8, E Adler 2.

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