by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — It took an overtime to do it, but the ninth ranked Andale team was able to shake off the feisty Lady Wellington Crusaders Friday night, 47-43.

Wellington’s five-game winning streak came to an end after taking the 13-3 and ninth ranked Indians into extra minutes.

Looking back, it was a game Wellington probably should have won. 

The Crusaders were in front 36-33 with 1:28 to play. Brittany Meyer, who had 25 points for the night, would nail a 3-pointer from the left wing to make it 36-all. Neither team would score thereafter in regulation. And the game went into overtime after Meyer’s foot touched the inbound line going for the final buzzer beater.

But she quickly made up for it in overtime, nailing a trey at the top of the key to give Andale a 39-36 lead. It would expand the lead to 45-39 going into the final minute.

Wellington would pull within three after Shayland French grabbed an offensive rebound and laid it in off a Lauryn Snipes missed free throw to make it 45-42.

After the two teams exchanged timeouts, the Crusaders had the Indians on the ropes by nearly getting a 10-second court violation, but a foul was called instead on Wellington.  Andale’s Friedrich’s went to the line and sunk two free throws and that was your game.

Snipes would have another 20-plus performance, scoring 23 for the night.

Wellington from the onset looked like a team hoping to pull off its second upset against a top 10 team this season. After beating Buhler 10 nights ago on a 51-50 win up north, the Dukes immediately set the tone that they had every intention of doing it again. The Crusaders led 15-13 at the end of the first quarter, but a very cold second quarter saw Andale outscore the Crusaders 10-2 and lead 23-17 at the half.

That score remained that way for much of the third quarter as neither team scored. But eventually, Wellington shaved the deficit to one 25-24 at the end of three.

S. French opened the fourth with a layup and two Snipes pull-up jumpers would give Wellington a four-point lead.

Wellington would maintain that lead until the final minute. Perhaps, the key moment of the game came when Taylor Zimmerman had a driving layup roll in and around the rim only to fall out almost mystically in the end.

Wellington, now 9-7, sets its sights against Mulvane away on Tuesday.

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