Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Creek Valley's Jessie Straber puts up a shot just over the outstretched arm of Leyton's Diedra Waite during Thursday's MAC semifinal held at Sidney Middle School.
Second-seeded Leyton High earned the right to defend its MAC Tournament championship Thursday night as the Lady Warriors snuck past the Creek Valley Storm 52-48 at Sidney Middle School.
For the Storm (5-7), it was the second straight season its MAC hopes were dashed by Leyton (6-7) in the semifinals. Last season, Creek Valley came in as the top seed while coming into the 2015 tournament as No. 3.
Leyton will meet the other semifinal winner Potter-Dix on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. for the championship in a battle of the top two seeds. The Storm will meet Bayard in the consolation game at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
The Storm's Jill Behrends led all scorers as she hit five field goals from downtown en route to 18 points. Jesse Straber scored 13 points and Payje Misegadis shook the nets for nine. The Warriors' Diedra Waite was the queen of the inside as she gained the bulk of her 16 points down low. Shaela Jenkins was good for nine points, Natalie Cruise eight and Dani McKay and Jessica Houk struck for seven.
Though never with a lead of more than five points, Creek Valley held the advantage for most of the first three quarters. Despite three brief occasions over the initial three quarters when Leyton managed an edge, Creek Valley was the front runner for all but about three of the first 25 minutes of the contest. The Storm, however, never established a lead greater than five points.
"They played with us all the way, but we knew this would be a tough one coming in," Cruise said. "We knew we would have to work for every little thing to win."
The Warriors served notice over the final eight minutes it was ready to defend its MAC title. They turned the trick largely from the free-throw line. Leyton proved steady at the line by sinking 12 of 16 free throws, while the Storm hit on just 6 of 16 in the fourth quarter.
When Natalie Cruise hit a three-pointer with 6:51 to play, it was the first lead Leyton would grab in the final stanza. But Leyton didn't take the advantage for good until McKay drained a pair of foul shots just over a minute later to cancel out a Misegadis jumper.
The Warriors took their biggest lead of the night of seven points after a Cruise foul shot, but that was quickly answered by a Behrends trey. An opportunity quickly followed for Creek Valley to make it a two-point game, but missed free throws foiled its attempts.
"If we just hit a few of our foul shots that would have been it," said Storm head coach Bill Wilber. "That's really what it all came down to in the end."
Ironically, the Storm's offense began 18 seconds into the game with a successful free throw by Hannah Schievelbein. The Storm finished the frame strong also with an 8-1 run to take a 14-9 first-quarter lead.
Waite opened the second eight minutes with a personal 8-2 run to give the Warriors a brief lead at 16-13. A couple of buckets by Straber helped keep the Storm in front before Waite ended half by sinking a pair of freebies for a 20-19 edge.
"That was an exciting game – just like last years MAC game with Creek Valley was," said Warriors' head coach Nick Newkirk. "With Natalie and Kaitlyn (Berner) fouling out in the fourth quarter, I went with Abbe Draper and Jessica Houk, and they played very well late in the game."
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