Lyndi Barton with the layup in the first quarter vs. Andale.

By Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — The Wellington girls basketball team has qualified for its third Class 4A state tournament championship semifinal game. The Crusaders defeated Andale 71-53, Wednesday afternoon. The Crusaders will play McPherson on Friday at 2 p.m. at the Salina Tony Pizza Center. McPherson would later beat Ottawa 66-44.

Wellington (22-1) pulled off the hat trick against its league rival. But make no mistake, this game was the most difficult of the three. Despite winning by 18 points, the win wasn’t secured until about three minutes left to play. The two previous games, Wellington had safely secured victory before the half.

Duke fans were in full force. Some Duke fans look quite a bit alike.

“Hats off to the Andale coaching staff for a great game plan,” said Eric Adams, Wellington’s head girls’ basketball coach. “We knew going in that this was going to be tough. Inevitably, there will also be more nerves than you have during the regular season, no matter the opponent. Crazy things happen in a tournament like this.”

The Crusaders were lifted by their four starters scoring in double figures. Valerie Norwood, Dru Zeka, and Britt Zeka all scored 14 points, while Lyndi Barton had 13. And for a while there, it appeared they were going to need every one of them. Despite leading 51-42 going into the fourth quarter, Wellington was looking very shaky.

Britt Zeka came out hot in the first quarter with three 3-pointers.

But in the fourth, the Crusaders returned to form and it did so by doing something different. It implemented a match-up zone defense.

“We haven’t used it this year, but I thought this was the time to do it,” Adams said.

It worked. Wellington immediately opened up a double-digit lead, eventually outscoring Andale 20-11 in the final frame. In the quarter alone, Wellington created six steals to Andale’s one, and the Indians committed nine turnovers. The key stat here: Andale had 28 turnovers to Wellington’s 13 for the game. Again, it was the defense getting it done for the Lady Dukes.

Wellington’s Cruz Cornejo (front) had a big game, getting 8 points.

But Andale most certainly made Wellington work for it. After losing to the Crusaders two weeks ago, 63-28, the Indians looked anything like that team today in Salina.

The Crusaders were leading 22-12 at the end of the first quarter thanks to three Britt Zeka 3-pointers. But Andale had its biggest run of the game, scoring 11 consecutive points, including three 3-pointers on consecutive possessions. Andale took a 23-22 lead.

“I told my girls at the timeout that this is it,” Adams said. “Winning a game like this depends on how you handle the valleys, and this most certainly is a valley. We could either curl up in a ball and go home, or get back to work.”

They went back to work.

The Crusaders responded with a 10-point run of their own and were back in front 32-23 at the 3:13 mark of the second quarter. Wellington led 38-27 at the half.

Another Wellington wrap-up at the half-court line.

The next moment of adversity came early in the third when the Crusaders went ice cold and didn’t score on five consecutive possessions. Andale got within four, 43-39, at the 2:20 mark of the third, and Wellington had just one deuce from the field for the half.

Once again, the Crusaders stopped the bleeding. After the timeout, freshman Dru Zeka nailed a 3-pointer from the right wing. Wellington led 51-42 after three quarters.

Kylan Gregory opened the next quarter with two free throws, and from that point forward, the rout was on. The Crusaders built a 24-point lead en route to an 18-point victory.

Crusaders are off to the semifinals and guaranteed three games in state.

The full stats of the game can be found here.

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