Wellington wins the tournament championship.

by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — Wellington head coach Eric Adams said before the season started, the Crusader girls made it a goal to win four tournaments. They have now won two.

Wellington beat Goddard 47-42 to win the Haven Tournament Saturday night. And it did so with a shocking stat. The Crusaders had just one field goal in the second half, three in three quarters, and none in the fourth. The Crusaders were able to secure this game because of two things: a red-hot first quarter and plenty of time on the free-throw line. Wellington shot 40 free throws Saturday night, making 23.

Yes, it was that kind of day where the officials blew their whistles any time a player breezed by. The Lions were 15 of 23 at the line – not exactly a lack of charity stripe time for them either.

In the end, Wellington would capture the Haven Tournament Championship and is now a perfect 12-0. It also secured victory against an old friend, former WHS head coach Kevin Hackerott.

Still, Wellington left the court, knowing it still had some work to do. For all intents and purposes, Goddard had Wellington beat the final three quarters. The Lions were also the first team to effectively shut Grace Mitchell down.

The Nebraska-bound product was still the top Crusader scorer, getting 14 points for the game, but she scored nine in the first quarter and never hit a field goal for the final three quarters.

Goddard’s inside force of Sam Schwab and C.J. Wilhelm held her in check inside, forcing her to put the ball on the floor. Wellington had to look elsewhere for points, and they weren’t finding shots there either.

“We knew it was going to be a grind,” Adams said. “That was the best defensive team we’ve seen all year by far.”

It didn’t start out that way. Wellington would nab a 13-0 lead, getting three 3-pointers from Mitchell and eight points from Avery Rusk. Goddard couldn’t hit the ocean from a boat in the first quarter, and Wellington had a comfortable 21-5 first-quarter advantage.

“We really dug ourselves in a hole early,” Hackerott said. “It took us three quarters to dig ourselves back out of it. We expended so much energy that by the time we got it close, we couldn’t finish things out.”

Once Goddard took Wellington out of its offensive rhythm, the Crusaders never could get back their swagger thereafter. It also didn’t help that Wellington was getting in supreme foul trouble. For the second game in a row, Lauryn Snipes had three fouls midway through the third quarter and picked up her fourth on a ridiculous charging call. Tayland French fouled out, and Grace Mitchell had four.

It could have been worse. Wellington could have been Goddard. The Lions fouled out two of their starters and had three others with four fouls. Had this game gone into overtime, this might have been a battle of the junior varsity.

Goddard had narrowed the margin to 28-15 by the half and was down 35-28 at the end of the third. Goddard would shave the lead down to four points but would never get any closer. The Lions, like Wellington, weren’t hitting many shots from the field.

Wellington had trouble putting Goddard away at the free-throw line, going 1 of 6 in the final two minutes. But Shayland French made two impressive defensive stands to help secure the win for the Lady Dukes.

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