QUALIFY FOR STATE TOURNAMENT

By William

HILLSBORO – In a game defined by defense, the Moundridge girls pulled off an upset on Saturday when they went on the road and beat Hillsboro 36-30 to not only win the substate championship but to qualify for a trip to the Class 2A state tournament.

The Lady Wildcats will now take an 18-5 record into their state matchup with Garden Plain on Tuesday. Garden Plain qualified for state with 16-5 record after gaining a win in their substate final over Wichita Independent 50-43 in double overtime.

As for Moundridge, they held a slim one-point, 9-8 advantage by the end of the first quarter and took a two-point, 19-17 lead into the halftime break before finally finding a cushion of five points at 37-22 at the end of the third quarter before holding on for the final six-point victory.

“The Lady Wildcats won a hard-fought defensive battle against Hillsboro,” explained Moundridge head coach Vicky Kessler. “Points were hard to come by with the Lady Trojan’s aggressive man-to-man defense, but our defense also made scoring hard for them.”

In the game the Lady Wildcats only shot 33% from the field and that includes missing all 11 shots from beyond the three-point line, but to counteract that they held Hillsboro to just 18% from the field overall as Moundridge held the Lady Trojan’s leading scorer, Teegan Werth, to just seven points on the night.

For Moundridge, they were led by Kate Eichelberger who reached double digits with 12 points while grabbing eight rebounds, handing out a pair of assists, making a pair of steals and blocking four shots.

Kindall Elmore just missed double figures with nine points while pulling down seven rebounds and Erin Durst chipped in with eight points. Though Kourtney Kaufman was held to just three points, she tied for the team lead in the paint with eight rebounds.

Coach Kessler concluded her reflections on the game by adding, “We had a solid night rebounding, holding a 29-24 edge over Hillsboro. One way to respond to a tight man to man defense is to attack the basket and Erin Durst, Emily Durst and Kindall Elmore all took advantage of that and had some big drives that ended in baskets or trips to the free throw line. I am so proud of these young ladies. Every day in practice they have come ready to get better. I want to give a shout out to our second five players, they do not get the recognition they deserve for always pushing the first five and doing whatever needs to be done.”

MOUNDRIDGE LADY WILDCATS at Hillsboro

SCORING:                 Q1      Q2      Q3      Q4      FINAL

LADY WILDCATS      9          10       8          9          36

Hillsboro                    8          9          5          8          30

Hillsboro Team Stats: FG 8-42; 3PT 5-20; FT 9-16; RBS 24.

MOUNDRIDGE LADY WILDCATS TEAM STATS: FG 12-36; 3PT 0-11; FT 12-16; RBS 29.

MOUNDRIDGE LADY WILDCATS INDIVIDUAL STAT LEADERS:

Kate Eichelberger = 12 points with 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 4 blocked shots.

Kindall Elmore = 9 points with 7 rebounds, 2 assists.

Erin Durst = 8 points with 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals.

Emily Durst = 4 points with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals.

Kourtney Kaufman = 3 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals.

{Moundridge Wildcat Postings are SPONSORED by CrossDove Creations}