Warrior girls rally for win

NEW LONDON - Perseverance pays off.

After taking a 2-0 lead to start the Tuesday's game, WACO's girls basketball team never led New London again until Clara Schmitz made the first basket of the fourth quarter.

The teams traded baskets until another Schmitz field goal gave the Warriors the lead for good at 38-37.

Kristen Conley's two free throws gave WACO a 42-39 lead and Aubri Garnsey made 1 of 2 foul shots for the critical 4-point advantage because a Marah Hartick 3-pointer for New London closed the gap and Layney Loyd's buzzer beater rolled across the rim and out, giving WACO a 43-42 Southeast Iowa Super Conference South Division victory.

'We had to stop making mistakes,” WACO coach Caylon DeVaul said. 'We had to stop being our own worst enemy.”

WACO improved to 4-6 overall, 2-5 South.

New London dropped to 1-7, 1-6. The Tigers suited up just six players and got their lone victory (63-61 at Cardinal) with just four players on the court when the game ended.

'That team is a lot better than what their record shows,” DeVaul said. 'Hats off to them. 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.”

Hartick led New London with 13 points.

'She did a nice job coming in to the backside short elbow area, and I think she probably hit four or five elbow shots in the row, and had a big 3 down towards the end,” NL coach Chad Wahls said. 'We settled way too much for outside shots, and we talked about that. My stats have it that we shot 4 of 23 from three. That's not a good percentage. We talked about that, that we have to continually always grow, and that if we're struggling in some area, we've got to do something that benefits the team in another way.”

Schmitz had 15 points for WACO, going 7 of 9 on free throws. Nadiyah Brown added nine points.

The final minutes were tension-packed as both teams called timeouts to set up plays.

'They come to play every night, and that's all I can ask,” Wahls said. '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 go get wins.”

'Right now we are not the best on situational play, especially with the lead,” DeVaul said. 'We just haven't been fortunate enough to have the lead. We would shoot a jumpshot when we didn't need to. The girls are still learning. It's still early in the season.”

WACO plays host to Notre Dame Thursday. 'They are a lot like us, so it is going to be a good game,” DeVaul said.