The West Point-Beemer girls basketball team took the trip to Lincoln for their first ever state tournament appearance on Thursday, meeting Lincoln Christian at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, in Class C1 action heard on 107.9 The Bull.
Sierra Kile hit a pair of three pointers in the first quarter, but the Crusader still led 13-6 at the end of the frame.
The Cadets were again held to single digit scoring in the second quarter, and Lincoln Christian took a 29-14 lead into halftime.
West Point-Beemer had its best quarter of the game in the third, thanks to three points buckets by Kile, Rachel Groth and Sidney Swanson, but the Crusaders still led by 10 and 47-37 heading into the fourth.
Swanson added six more points in the final period, but Lincoln Christian was able to keep the Cadets at bay, winning the game 46-35.
“I know that Coach Orduna really had a great game plan, he knew that we had some outside shooters so he had the guards go out and contest them. And they had 6’4 in the middle of the lane so took away a little bit of our driving game,” head coach Taylor Shepard said. “It was just tough to get something going in that first half especially, you never want to end a half with 14 points, much less down at the state tournament. So I thought that there were definitely some things that we could learn and grow from, but our girls had such a great season, and I don’t think that’s maybe a reflection of how the whole season went.”
Both Swanson and Kile had 13 points for the Cadets, with 11 of Swanson’s points coming in the second half.
West Point-Beemer ends their season at 23-3 overall.
What a marvelous and fantastic season for the Cadets.
West Point-Beemer did great, finishing 6th in the final rankings.
Kile and Swanson were the team's leading scorers on the season at 14 points per game while Andrea Hoffman finished with an average of 8.
The Cadets say goodbye to six seniors in Darian Repschlaeger, Kile, Hoffman, Kendra Paasch, Abby Kaup, and Brooke Haase.
Shepard says these seniors earned everything they accomplished this season. "I think the biggest thing is just thank you to that phenomenal group of seniors that we had. Their leadership from Day One has been incredible. They showed up early every single day this summer, and worked as hard as they possibly could. They showed up and shot every morning before we had practice, and they're just such a great group of girls who are going to do great things."
Shepard adds the future looks bright given who all comes back next year. "Having Sidney Swanson back at the point guard position and a role as a junior will really be helpful for us as she's really settled in and had some of this state experience now. Abbey Dale, who had a phenomenal second half for us and was a really big part of that spark to get us back into the game. She'll be back as our senior, which I'm excited to see what she can do on the defensive end. Brooklyn Weddle also one of our key guard subs will be back. And then we get Rachel Groth in the post position, and some of our freshmen. Jadyn Meiergerd, Emily Toelle, and even some of those 8th graders coming up I think definitely have an opportunity to step into some roles."
I look for West Point-Beemer to reload and bounce back strong next year.
The Cadets now know what it's like and what it takes to get to state, and need to capitalize on this state berth and prepare even harder this offseason and get ready for next year.
I think there's a lot of promise in next year's team, and now they have to build off of the great season this year's team had.
History was made at West Point-Beemer this year, and these girls should be very proud of what they accomplished.
Now it's a matter of taking that next step and getting back to the state tournament next year and getting past the first round.
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