Leyton honors seniors with win

Four seniors took the floor in their home gym for the final time on Thursday. And the Warriors made sure their last look would be a successful one.

After taking the lead early in the first quarter, the Warriors cruised to victory over the Garden County Eagles 55-35 in Dalton.

The win puts an end to Leyton's recent four-game losing streak, just before the team heads into the sub-districts next Tuesday in Gering.

The Warriors have been installed as the No. 1 seed in the tournament with the Eagles having been awarded the second seed. Leyton will await the result of the play-in game on Monday between No. 4 Banner County (2-16) and No. 5 Minatare (0-16) to determine who it will play Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

The Eagles will match their skills with No. 3 South Platte on Tuesday following the Warriors contest.

"Now we've accomplished two of the three goals we set for ourselves at the start of the season," said Warriors Head Coach Nick Newkirk. "We wanted to win the MAC Tournament and we've done that. We wanted to finish above .500 and now we've done that. So now we want to qualify for state."

In order to reach that third goal, Leyton will need to win their sub-districts and then go on to capture the district finals the following week.

Thanks to Thursday night's performance, the Warriors head into post season with some positive momentum.

Of course, it didn't seem especially dramatic when senior Kelsey Waite sank a pair of free throws with 4:15 remaining in the opening quarter. But the significance of the shots soon became clear.

When Waite first stepped to the line the Warriors trailed 4-3. By the time her turn at the line concluded the Warriors had gained a lead they would never surrender.

Kaitlyn Berner soon made the Warriors lead more secure, following Waite by draining her second three pointer in three minutes. Less than 10 seconds later Berner dropped in a hoop from closer range.

A couple of more points each from Waite and Dani McKay helped Leyton to a 14-8 first-quarter lead.

When Diedra Waite banked a shot off the glass in the first 15 seconds of the second period, the Warriors extended their lead still further. Big sister Kelsey Waite helped keep the momentum going forward when she followed Diedra with a three pointer.

Later in the period Berner dropped in her third trey of the first half.

When the horn signaled the end of the half, Leyton held a 28-15 lead.

"We got off to a good start and that was important," said Berner. "I think mentally we didn't really know what happened when we were losing. Maybe our pre-game warm up had something to do with our turnaround, when we danced around. We haven't done that in a little while."

The Warriors kept on dancing right through the second half. They opened the third with a 6-0, comprised of two buckets by Carly Rushman and another by Katy Ernest.

Rushman, Ernest, Kesley Waite and Emily Gill are the four seniors who played their last home game.

"It hasn't really hit me that this was my last game here becasue I'm usually kind of emotional about things like this," said Rushman. "I think it will really hit me when we've played our last game of the season."

Following the opening burst by Waite and Rushman, Waite later bent the twine from three-point land to mark her final trey in the home gym.

Leyton piled on 21-points in the third stanza to take a 49-24 lead heading into the final period.

The only significance to the fourth quarter of a game that was already largely decided, was a brief scare that must have gone through the Warriors faithful. Ernest went down after bumping with an Eagles player. Though she was removed from the game for precautionary reasons she suffered little more than a bruise.

"I would have beat myself up over that one," Newkirk said. "She really shouldn't have been in there at that point. But I wanted to be able to pull all the seniors at the same time so they could be aknowledged in their final home game."

Berner led the Warriors in scoring with 16 points while Kelsey Waite had 10. McKay and Diedra Waite each finished with 6 apiece.

After the game the Warriors players gathered at center court and acknowledge their fans - many who have followed them at home and away all season.

"I think that was a really good start," said McKay. "All the other games don't count right now."

Leyton Linescore

Garden Co. 8 7 9 11 - 35

Leyton 14 14 21 6 - 55

Warriors Scoring

Kaitlyn Berner 16

Kelsey Waite 12

Katy Ernest 6

Dani McKay 6

Diedra Waite 6

Carly Rushman 4

Shaela Jenkins 2

Natalie Cruise 2

Abbe Draper 1