Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Conner Wolff of Potter-Dix fires up one of a combined 105 free-throw attempts during Friday night’s girls basketball contest against visiting Sedgwick County (Colo.). The total, once verified by the National Federation of High Schools, will rank second all-time nationally, and is unofficially a new state record.
POTTER – It certainly won’t go down as a thing of beauty, but Potter-Dix High School’s girls basketball team will take it.
In a lengthy, rugged and sloppily-played affair, the Coyotes broke away from a halftime tie with a 17-2 third-quarter run, then almost squandered it in a 55-47 victory against Sedgwick County that will be better remembered for its futilities than anything else.
The teams combined to foul 71 times, and what’s more, the Coyotes and Cougars combined to shoot 105 free throws, and made just 51 of them.
How bizarre was the contest? So much, that P-D – despite owning a 15-point lead after three periods – allowed Sedgwick 28 free-throw shots in the final quarter.
Fortunately for Jeff Einspahr’s club (1-0), Sedgwick made just 17 of those attempts. For the game, the Cougars were a paltry 33 for 62, and Potter-Dix wasn’t much better, going just 18 for 43.
“It was a crazy game, but we’ll take it,” Einspahr said. “We worked really hard.”
Perhaps at times, too hard.
The first-half was a complete stalemate, deadlocked at 22, and complete with 36 turnovers and 25 fouls.
Sedgwick County’s Hailee Woltemath did all her team’s scoring in the third period, hitting a pair of free throws in four attempts. Woltemath also had a field goal, but she put a defensive rebound back in Potter-Dix’s basket to help pitch in on the deficit.
Sedgwick didn’t score a second-half field goal of its own until the 6:35 mark of the fourth period, when Alex Wyman scored off the right baseline.
Conner Wolff led P-D in scoring with 21 points, but even she struggled shooting free throws, making just 7 of 20 to go with seven field goals.
However, she did hit two foul shots with 34.4 seconds remaining that put the game on ice, after the Coyotes had lost almost all of a 19-point lead that they owned with 6:55 remaining.
Woltemath paced Segdwick with 18 points. She made the one lone field goal, and hit 16 of 21 foul shots to give her team a chance. Unfortunately again, her teammates were 17 of 40.
P-D plays at Banner County this evening.
Potter-Dix 55, Sedgwick County 47
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