Wellington girls slay Rose Hill in first round of sub-state 60-42
Ali Zeka leads Wellington with 17 points against Rose Hill.
by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington girls made a statement to open the sub-state tournament with a 60-42 victory Rose Hill.
The Crusaders now advance to the sub-state championship game where they will battle Clearwater Saturday at 3 p.m. The Indians manhandled Winfield 50-32 in the other sub-state semifinal game. Both teams have split in the regular season. It should be a good one.
Wednesday night, Wellington thrilled the hometown fans doing everything it had excelled with during the regular season: tenacious defense, aggressive transition and knocking down threes.
Wellington hit eight three-pointers, five of them in the first quarter. Rose Hill raced to a 9-2 early lead, but that was erased pretty quickly when four girls knocking down five threes.
“It is amazing what three-ball will do for you,” said Eric Adams, Wellington head girls basketball coach.
The Crusaders would have seven girls scoring in the contest. Ali Zeka led the team with 16 and Airalyn Frame had 15.
“We did a good job matching up with Rose Hill’s physicality and finding the open looks,” Adams said. “They were implementing a 2-3 zone and were very physical doing it. You don’t usually refer physicality to zone defenses, but that is what they do.”
Shiney Hughes was one of four girls scoring a 3-pointer in the first quarter.
As mentioned Crusaders found themselves down by seven, but would outscore the Rockets 21-7 in a matter of five minutes. Lexi Clift had two 3-pointers, Shiney Hughes had one, Ashlyn Gerten one and Frame one.
In the second quarter, Wellington was in the bonus with four girls having two fouls. Adams had to use the bench for much of the latter part of the half. The Crusaders were still able to up the lead to 10, 37-27 at the half.
In the third, Rose Hill implemented a 1-3-1 zone that slowed the Crusaders a bit. Still, Wellington outscored the Rockets 12-8.
At the end of the quarter, Wellington pretty much wrapped up the game. Looking for the last shot, Rose Hill could not cross the half-court line in 10 seconds and turned the ball over with 3.5 seconds to play. After a timeout, Rylee Rusk would hit a 3-pointer on the left wing to give the Crusaders a 49-35 lead and pretty much take the wind out of the Rose Hill sails.
In the final eight minutes, the Crusaders pretty much played keep away and forced Rose Hill into a fouling situation. Wellington was 7-of-10 at the charity stripe down the stretch.
The Crusaders will now compete against a Clearwater team that is the tallest team it will see this season.
“They have a front line of 6-footers,” Adams said. “We don’t have that height and will have to counter it with some zone. But I’m sure we’ll play some man-t0-man at times. That is what we are good at.”
The Crusaders have won five straight. If they win a sixth, they would be going back to the state tournament after a two-year absence.
Wellington 60 Rose Hill 42
Rose Hill — 14 13 8 7 — 42
Wellington — 21 16 12 11 — 60
Wellington: Zeka 16, Frame 15, Gerten 8, Hughes 7, Rusk 7, Clift 6, Reichenberger 1. Total: 10 (8) 16-23 60. Rose Hill: Rose 12, Goetz 12, Thrush 10, Hackney 5, Rauoe 3. Total 9 (2) 18-23 42.
