No. 6 Warriors persevere in OT win

BURLINGTON -- The Milwaukee Bucks have the 'Greek Freak” in Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The WACO High School boys basketball team has 'The Italian Stallion” in senior Pietro Vannini, a 6-foot-3 foreign exchange student from Italy.

And it doesn't hurt to have 6-7 senior all-state post player Nik Coble on their side, either.

Vannini hit two clutch shots in overtime and Coble came up with a huge steal and sank a crucial free throw to lead Class 1A's sixth-ranked WACO to a come-from-behind 48-45 overtime win over Notre Dame in an SEI Super Conference South Division game Tuesday at Father Minett Gymnasium in Burlington.

The Warriors had to overcome a distressing start to the game as Notre Dame raced out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter.

WACO didn't panic. Instead, the Warriors chipped away at the deficit bit by bit. It was a 26-14 deficit at the half. A 20-5 advantage in the third quarter put the tally at 34-31 WACO starting the final quarter, but 39-39 at the end of regulation.

In overtime, the Warriors' experience and will took over. Gabe Reichenbach scored on a nifty feed from Coble, Vannini hit a 3-pointer, then scored on a baseline drive to give WACO a 47-45 lead.

Coble then stole a pass in the lane and sank a free throw to give the Warriors a three-point lead with 12.3 seconds left to close out the scoring.

'We're a senior group, so we've been in those situations before, especially my class. When we were freshmen, it seemed like every night we were down 15-0,” Coble said. 'We know how to handle adversity and we knew what to do. We played four quarters of our game and that's how we won.”

'That's one of the things we talked about. We've been there before, in this gym, actually,” WACO coach Paul Kissell said. 'Shots are hard to hit sometimes. I don't know if it's the environment or what it is for us. We did not shoot well that first quarter, but we were running our offense.”

Coble led WACO (10-0, 7-0) with 17 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Vannini tallied 12 points with six rebounds and Reichenbach added eight points with seven rebounds.

'They're a good team,” Notre Dame coach Dan Kies said.

WACO girls continue improvement

It may not show it in the win-loss column, but the WACO High School girls basketball game is getting better, day by day, game by game

Notre Dame was able to stave off a WACO rally and come away with a 62-44 SEISC South win Tuesday at Father Minett Gymnasium.

The Nikes were outplayed and outhustled for much of the night by a WACO team which continues to make great strides.

WACO hit three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter on their way to a 22-point total in the stanza, doubling their points from the first three quarters combined.

'We did some things right. We hung in there to the end,” WACO coach Caylon DeVaul said. 'I'm proud of the girls. They worked hard. Our message is still to get better every day. Win or lose, there are going to be things to work on. What we didn't do well tonight, we did better in other areas we've been focusing on. I'm happy with that.”

WACO (2-9, 1-7) was led by Morgan Graber, who scored 11 points. Also for the Warriors, Grace Conwell scored nine points, Ellah Kissell and Laney Graber each scored seven points, Molly McLaughlin scored six points and Lela-Ann Fort came off the bench to add four points.

'Hat's off to WACO. They outplayed us and outworked us,” Notre Dame coach Jim Myers said. 'They beat us to the ball. They beat us to 50-50 balls. They beat us on the boards. Everything you could think of was unacceptable and we still won. We're fortunate.”