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HARTINGTON - The Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcats used some home cooking to earn the first win of the season with a 54-47 win over Summerland on Dec. 7.
The night before, the Lady Wildcats dropped a 40-27 defensive struggle to Ponca to finish the weekend with a 1-1 record on the young season.
Hartington-Newcastle played stubborn against the Lady Wildcats and came away with the hard fought victory.
“It was a quick turn around to a Saturday afternoon tip against another talented team in Summerland,” HNS coach Grant Rolfes said. “I really thought we played hard and despite too many turnovers, just kept at it and found a way to win.”
The teams entered the final frame with the Lady Wildcats clinging to a 36-35 lead.
Freshman, Vayda Lippert, who would finish with 14 points in the game, canned a 3-pointer to boost the lead to 39-35. The Lady Bobcats answered with a bucket inside, but Lippert stole the ball and stopped and popped a 5-foot jump shot to move the HNS advantage back up to four.
The lead grew to six when Maddie Steffe,who finished with a team-high 15 points, hit a 12-foot jumper with just over 4:30 left on the clock to make it 43-37.
Summerland would score the next five points to make it a 1-point game with 2:30 left on the clock, but a Steffen long ball put the lead back up to four then Lippert drove the lane again and scored with 2:01 left and the lead was back up to six.
Steffen added a free throw with 1:14 left before the Lady Bobcats scored on an offensive rebound and put back.
Steffen toed the charity stripe again with 50.3 seconds left and hit two foul shots to get the lead back to seven.
Kloe Fischer came off the bench and hit a couple of free throws with 36.6 seconds left and was then fouled while attempting a 3-pointer with 21.9 seconds left.
She converted just one of the three free tosses but it was enough to get the Lady Wildcats over the edge with their first win.
“We had three girls in double digits to lead the scoring but got great contributions from Kloe Fischer,” said Rofes. “She was a spark off the bench for us. Our rotation was thinner with one girl out due to illness so her stepping up was key.”
McKenzie Bruning joined Steffen and Lippert in double digits with 13 points. Fischer finished with a very important three points on the afternoon.
In the opener with the Lady Indians on the road, neither team set the world on fire in the first eight minutes as they hit the first rest stop with Ponca in front 4-3.
“The first quarter of the game both teams looked rusty, which was to be expected,” Rolfes said. “There was not a lot of rhythm to the game but I thought we defended well.
By the intermission the teams went to the locker room with the Lady Indians up 14-11 and they went into the final eight minutes with Ponca still up but by only the 3-point margin.
“I thought we kind of ran out of gas in the fourth quarter, Kloe Fischer kept us in the game with some hustle plays in the fourth but our defensive effort eased and they pulled away from us in the end.”
Lippert paced the Lady Wildcats with 11 points, Bruning had seven and Steffen tossed in six.
Summerland 11 12 12 12 - 47 HNS 14 7 15 18 - 54 HNS: Vayda Lippert 5-13 2-4 14; Hazel Hochstein 0-2 0-0 0; Alejandra Reyes 0-1 0-0 0; Kloe Fischer 0-0 3-5 3; Ella Eickhoff 3-8 1-2 7; McKenzie Bruning 6-10 1-2 13; Maddie Steffen 5-19 3-6 15; Ziva Stratman 1-1 0-0 2. HNS 3 8 10 6 - 27 Ponca 4 10 10 16 - 40 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Lippert 2-5 7-11 11; Hochstein 0-2 1-2 1; Reyes 0-1 0-2 0; Fischer 0-2 2-4 2; Eickhoff 0-4 0-0 0; Bruning 2-3 3-4 7; Steffen 3-8 0-0 6.
