WACO girls hang on to nip 'Cats by one

By AARON VINER

Golden Triangle News Service

COLUMBUS JUNCTION ? There were 19.5 seconds left to play when Kelsey Pretz delivered what appeared to be a momentum changing play.

Her Columbus Wildcats trailed WACO by four points in a low scoring affair in Columbus Junction, until the senior drilled a three-point shot, closing the gap to one point.

Then it was up to the foul shooting of the Warriors to help close the game up.

After missing the front end of a one-and-one situation a couple seconds before, Jennie Greene toed the line for WACO and couldn?t connect on her second free throw of the night.

?We were going to get the ball to Jennie the last few times, and we did,? WACO head coach Shannon Rugg said. ?We didn?t make the free throws, but I?ll take my chances with Jennie Greene at the line all the time. When the fourth quarter rolls around she?s going to be money. I?m sure she won?t miss two free throws in the fourth quarter the rest of the year, because that?s what she does.?

Columbus got the rebound, and quickly called a timeout with 13 seconds left to play.

The gameplan? Get it to Pretz, who led all scorers with 14 points in the game.

Pretz drove in and put up a shot from 10-feet out, but it didn?t go in, but Columbus wasn?t done just yet.

They had another opportunity with six seconds left on the clock. The inbound pass went to Claire Hamilton, who pushed it quickly to Bailey Stroud. Stroud put up a baseline three-pointer, but it fell off the mark, ending the Wildcats? comeback effort, and giving WACO a 26-25 victory in its season opener.

Early on, the Warriors looked like they might have their hands full guarding Pretz, as she scored the first seven Wildcat points of the contest, helping Columbus out to a 7-4 lead.

?We didn?t really have a game plan, but we held her to four in the second half,? Rugg said. ?They went to her a lot late, hitting a three in the last minute, and she?s a good ballplayer and a mismatch wherever you put her. Our girls kept competing and found a way to win.?

WACO fought back in the first quarter to tie things up at 10 at the break.

In the second half, the WACO defense put the clamps on, holding Columbus to one point for the first 10 minutes of play, as the Warriors jumped out to a 23-18 lead early in the fourth quarter.

?It means we are 1-0, and hopefully we get a little confidence out of this,? Rugg said. ?We played well against Washington in the Hall of Pride game, and we didn?t play very well tonight, but we did the things we had to do to win the basketball game. We had a group in there that hasn?t played a lot of basketball.?