The Circle Lady Thunderbirds were hoping to gain revenge on Rose Hill for practically winning the Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League Division IV title at Hanson Court.
Instead, the Lady Thunderbirds did gain some revenge Saturday night on the way to beating the Wellington Lady Crusaders 49-31 in the girls championship game of the Class 4A Maize South sub-state tournament at Maverick Gymnasium.
The Lady Thunderbirds allowed only three first half field goals on the way to building a 19-10 halftime lead. Wellington was 3-of-10 shooting with 14 turnovers in the first half as they had trouble breaking the Circle defense.
“This is the best feeling of all time,” said senior Christy Couey, one of four seniors who get to don their colors for at least one time in the Class 4A state tournament at the Salina Bicentennial Center. “We had worked so hard for it. It’s hard to describe.
“We just wanted to attack on both ends of the floor. We worked on defense very hard Friday at practice.”
The Circle game plan was to try to contest the outside shots by Wellington players Ashlyn Whaley and Dani Anderson. Whaley did score 20 points for the Lady Crusaders (13-10), but she was the only player who hit baskets in the first half and most of the third quarter; while Anderson didn’t even score until the fourth quarter.
“We did a tremendous job on Anderson with (senior) Ally Burden covering her most of the night,” said Circle coach Brian Henry. “We feel we did a better job of covering Whaley in the second half. Their offense is geared to shoot the ball from the outside and get the long rebounds (and) our main goal was to force them to take it inside.”
Kyrstie Ehm led Circle (19-4) in scoring with 16 points, while Burden added eight and Hanna Flaming seven in the win. The Lady T-Birds were 16-of-39 from the field and 15-of-28 from the line. Circle also forced 19 Wellington turnovers in the game.
“We really felt comfortable (on the floor Saturday night),” Ehm said. “We got out there and played good defense; but sometimes, we didn’t close out. Pressuring them got us steals, which is what we wanted to do.”
Now it’s on to state for the Circle girls, who are seeded sixth, and there was definitely excitement among the players for the next stage of the season which starts Wednesday against unbeaten Cheney (23-0). The game is scheduled for 4:45 p.m. Wednesday.
“We’ve had opportunities to make it to state, but we never finished,” Ehm said. “Tonight we finished and it feels really good. It’s going to be more exciting to see how we do at state.”
WELLINGTON (31) – Ashlyn Whaley 20, Dani Anderson 4, Erienne Adams 4, Sarah Amrein 2, Madi Becker 1. Totals 10 6-10 31.
CIRCLE (49) – Kyrstie Ehm 16, Abby Burden 8, Hanna Flaming 7, Charity Hon 5, Haley Barrett 4, Christy Couey 4, Taci Richard 3. Totals 16 15-28 49.
Wellington 7 3 11 10 – 31
Circle 9 10 12 18 – 49
Three-point baskets – Wellington 5 (Whaley 4, Adams 1), Circle 2 (Ehm 2). Records – Wellington 13-10, Circle 19-4.
