Lady Storm, Leyton advance to Subdistrict finals

Creek Valley High School’s girls’ basketball team has apparently found a home away from home, as in Sidney.

After winning last month’s Minuteman Activities Conference championship on the Sidney Middle School floor, Bill Wilber’s Lady Storm were back at it again Tuesday night.

Pulling off a mild postseason upset, Creek held off rival Potter-Dix, 49-46, in the Sidney D1-12 Subdistrict semifinal at Cabela’s Athletic Facility.

“I guess we do like it here, don’t we?” Wilber cracked.

Shaking off an early 11-4 deficit, and despite making just 12 of 31 free throws, Creek (10-9) used a quick scoring burst to grab a short lead in the second quarter, and Jeff Einspahr’s Coyotes (9-9) never recovered.

Creek’s Jerry Straber scored eight straight points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and a layup off a steal, to give the Storm a 14-13 lead, and Jill Behrends hit a lean-in bank shot to give the Storm a cushion it wouldn’t give up.

“We knew if we hung in there, we could play with them,” Wilber said. “This is the third time we’ve met, so that’s always scary for both clubs.”

CV’s lead see-sawed between one and three points before a Straber foul shot pushed the margin to 22-18 at halftime.

The third period was more or less a study in frustration for both teams, but Creek began to slowly build on its lead.

A third try by Storm sophomore Hannah Schievelbein resulted in a three-point play that gave Creek a 28-22 edge.

“We gave them just enough chances,” Einspahr said. “Creek boxed out well and they crashed the boards. That was the deciding factor for them.”

That, and the hot hand of Behrends.

Behrends hit a 3-pointer to end the third period, giving Creek a 31-24 lead, then opened the fourth quarter with another trey to punch the spread to double digits.

For good measure, Summer Mueller dropped a controversial three-point play to forge Creek ahead, 37-24. It appeared P-D’s Amanda Maas had fouled Mueller prior to her driving layup on the left side of the lane, but the official counted the basket, and Mueller sank the foul shot.

“I thought the foul was on the floor,” Einspahr said. “But the official was pretty adamant about calling it.”

P-D began clawing its way back, and made its first dent with 2:25 remaining when Kaidee Livingstone sank a pair of foul shots. Creek then began to run a delay offense, but on its next possession, Behrends appeared confused as to whether she should shoot a 3-pointer off the right wing.

Behrends turned to the bench, got the thumbs-up from Wilber, and knocked down the trey at 2:03 to preserve a twin-figure advantage, 47-36.

“I hollered at Behrends to shoot it, and she was saying, ‘Really?’” Wilber recalled. “At that point, we were trying to slow it down, but we also needed the points.”

In the end, it turned out Creek needed all of the three points.

Two free throws and a basket by Livingstone, followed by a Lindsay Harms score, enabled P-D to shave the deficit to 47-42.

Straber hit a foul shot for Creek, and Livingstone answered with a pair, leaving the teams apart by a 48-44 count with 1:06 remaining.

Creek struggled with its foul shots, and a Conner Wolff score at 15.5 seconds made it 49-46. However, P-D couldn’t foul soon enough, and even when Mueller missed both of her free throws at 5.8 seconds, the Coyotes couldn’t get downcourt in time to get off a final attempt.

“We had a chance, but we ran out of time,” Einspahr said.

Straber led all scorers with 17 points, Behrends adding a dozen and Mueller nine for Creek. P-D’s C. Wolff scored 16 points and Maas added 15 before fouling out.

Despite the win, Wilber said his team needs to clean up its interior defense prior to taking on top-seeded Crawford in Thursday’s title game.

“We didn’t play well defensively in the post,” Wilber said. “We were seeing plays and then reacting to it instead of anticipating. That hurt us a bunch, as we had two foul out. Stefanie Mitchell and Shelby Selby came off the bench and stepped up for us.”

Creek Valley 49, Potter-Dix 46

POTTER-DIX (9-9)

CWolff 7 2-6 16, Maas 7 1-4 15, Livingstone 1 5-6 7, Harms 1 2-4 4, Juelfs 1 0-0 3, MWolff 0 1-3 1, Ramsey 0 0-1 0, Ball 0 0-0 0, Long 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 11-24 46

CREEK VALLEY (10-9)

JeStraber 5 5-12 17, JBehrends 4 1-4 12, Mueller 3 3-8 9, Schievelbein 2 1-1 5, Selby 1 2-4 4, Brown 0 0-2 0, Blackwelder 0 0-0 0, JoStraber 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 12-31 49

P-D 11 7 6 22—46

Creek 9 13 9 18—49

3-point goals — P-D 1 (Juelfs), Creek 5 (JBehrends 3, JeStraber 2). Team fouls — P-D 28, Creek 29. Fouled out — Brown, Mueller, Juelfs, Maas.

Mitchell Class D2-12 Subdistrict

Leyton 39,

Hay Springs 21

MITCHELL — Kaitlyn Berner put in 14 points and six steals to lead the Warriors (10-11) into Thursday’s championship game opposite Sioux County.

Leyton led 7-2 after a quarter and then kept expanding the command, pushing the lead to 18-8 at halftime and 29-12 at the third stop.

Kelsey Waite added seven points and 13 rebounds for Leyton, and Katy Ernest also had seven points. Rachael Ernest grabbed 11 rebounds.

Leyton pulled down 46 rebounds.

“We had great defense and solid rebounding,” Warriors coach Rol Rushman said. “We also shot 38 percent from the floor.”

Leyton and Sioux County will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday for the title.

Leyton 39, Hay Springs 21

HaySprings 2 6 4 9—21

Leyton 7 11 11 10—39

HAY SPRINGS (7-14)

ERoberts 10, Tsustos 7, KRoberts 2, Muhr 2

LEYTON (10-11)

Berner 14, KWaite 7, KErnest 7, Lukesh 4, Gill 4, R. Ernest 3