WACO girls survive New London

NEW LONDON -- The WACO-New London girls' game went right down to the buzzer on Tuesday night. Marah Hartrick nearly hit a game-winning three at the buzzer for New London, but the final shot went off rim and backboard before rolling off, and WACO picked up a 43-42 win.

New London had a strong start to the game. The Tigers led 11-5 after the first quarter, getting four scorers in the period. Laney Loyd scored four points in the first quarter to lead the Tigers.

The Tigers continued to spread the ball around in the second quarter, and all six players suited up for the Tigers scored at least one point. New London led 20-13 at the half, led by six points from Loyd.

WACO began to come back in the third quarter, using a handful of inside scores to cut the Tiger lead all the way down to one point at the end of the third quarter. Nadiyah Brown and Clara Schmitz scored five points apiece, and the New London lead was down to 30-29 going into the fourth.

The Warriors took the lead on a three-pointer by Laney Graber with 4:15 left, but Kara Krieger answered with a three-pointer by Kara Krieger less than a minute later. Clara Schmitz, who led the Warriors with six points in the fourth quarter, scored four straight points to make it 40-37 with less than two minutes left, and WACO held on to the lead from that point on.

With WACO leading 43-39 and time winding down, Hartrick drained a three-pointer to cut the lead to one point. After a couple of missed freethrows by Aubri Garnsey, Hartrick had a decent look from deep three-point land to win the game, but the shot just missed and the Warriors survived.

After the game, WACO head coach Caylon DeVaul credited his team for cutting down on mistakes in the second half.

'We had to stop being our own worst enemy,” DeVaul said. 'That team (New London) is a lot better than what their record shows. We made some silly mistakes, a lot of them, but we didn't make as many in the second half, and that's when we were able to catch up and get ahead.”

WACO was led by Schmitz, who finished the night with 15 points. Brown scored nine. Laney Graber had five. Lona Farrier and Maysan Lee had four each, and the trio of Aubri Garnsey, Laney Graber and Kristen Conley scored two points apiece.

Hartrick scored 12 points to lead New London. Krieger had nine. Loyd finished with five. Ashlyn McSorley had five, Emma Pry scored four, and Alisha Boles had three.

'They come to play every night, and that's all I can ask,” said New London head coach Chad Wahls. 'We were in the game again, and we've got to just develop that culture of ... this is our game, let's go win. Competing is nice and all, but you want to get wins.”

WACO (4-6) will host Notre Dame on Thursday, Dec. 20. New London (1-7) travels to West Burlington on Friday, Dec. 21.