Wellington girls stun defending state champion and No. 2 ranked Cheney on the road
Wellington girls in a huddle in the previous game vs. El Dorado.
by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — They call them signature wins. Those wins you look back on and say, “now, that was a big one.”
Wellington got a signature win when it traveled to Cheney and knocked off the tournament favorite 55-49 in its home gymnasium. The Crusaders, winner of their three-team round-robin bracket, will now battle Pratt on Saturday in Cheney at 6 p.m. for the tournament championship.
The Crusaders, now 3-0, would build an 11-point first-half lead, saw Cheney tie it in the second half, and then clinch the win with deft shooting at the free-throw line in the waning moments. The win was huge in that Cheney was currently ranked No. 2 in Class 3A and was the defending state champions in both basketball and volleyball.
“To keep this PG-rated, but the girls played their butts off,” said Eric Adams, Wellington head girls basketball coach. “They played tenacious defense. They were out-sized but they dug down and closed out their 3-point shooting. Cheney is a team that looks and plays the part.”
Wellington has never beaten the Cheney girls. But to be fair, they rarely play, only seeing one another in this preseason tournament. They won’t see the team again this season.
The two teams were tied at 12-all after the first quarter. Unlike the first two games, Wellington got off to a good start.
“I joked in the locker room before the game that they put in a new rule that a team can score before the last two minutes of the first quarter,” Adams said referring to the Mulvane and El Dorado games in which Wellington never scored a point until that point.
The Crusaders had an outstanding second quarter outscoring Cheney 18-7 and leading 30-19 at the half.
But the seasoned Cheney team fought back and would eventually tie Wellington.
“We knew it was coming,” Adams said of the comeback. “I told the girls, the key to their success is how they responded to the valleys of a game.”
Wellington would eventually take a three-point lead with about two minutes in the game and would get free throws from Ashlyn Gerten and Airalyn Frame down the stretch to seal the victory. The Crusaders were 12-of-16 at the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.
Valorie Norwood, in only her third game as a freshman, was the leading scorer with 16 points. Ali Zeka had 12 and Frame had 11. Cheney was led by Leah Durr and Elina Bartlett with 15 and 14 points respectively.
“Cheney doesn’t have that 20-point scorer as they did in years past, but they are deeper,” Adams said.
Wellington will play Pratt Saturday which defeated Hutchinson Trinity and Chaparral on the other side of the bracket.
“I don’t know anything about them,” Adams said. “But I’m sure we will be ready to play.”
Wellington 55 Cheney 49
Wellington — 12 18 6 19 — 55
Cheney — 12 7 12 15 — 49
Wellington: Norwood 16, A. Zeka 12, Frame 11, Gerten 9, B. Zeka 5, Reichenberger 1, Nance 1. Total 11 (5) 18-25. Cheney: Durr 15, McCormick 14, Bartlett 9, Hague 4, Albers 4, Weive 3. Total: 14 (5) 6-10 49.
