The Crest Lady Lancers kicked off action at the War on 54 Basketball Tournament with a win over the Cherryvale Chargers, 40-35.
Crest’s win may have been a prelude of things to come Tuesday night against the 3A Iola Mustangs.
Results were not available by press time.
“It was a lot of fun, a little nerve-racking, but the girls did great,” Crest coach Steve Zimmerman said. “We scored when we needed to and our defense stepped up.”
The Lady Lancers and Chargers were in a slugfest until the fourth quarter, when Cherryvale’s fouls finally caught up to them.
Seeing a chink in Cherryvale’s armor, Crest senior guard Aylee Beckmon went on the attack — drawing fouls with each drive while adding to the Lady Lancers lead.
After ending the first half with a trio of field goals and a free throw for half of her team-leading 18 points, Beckmon netted all nine of her second half points from the free-throw line.
“We did well. I’m really surprised but I knew we could do it,” Beckmon said.
“We did it as a team. We all came out and we were prepared. There are places where we can get better, but we showed up and were successful.”
Beckmon was far from the only Lady Lancer to have success against a larger program. A crucial fourth-quarter three-pointer from junior guard Jaycee Schmidt made it a two-score game.
A pair of successful drives by senior forward Kinley Edgerton, sandwiching a free-throw by Beckmon, pushed the game out of reach for Cherryvale.
“For us posts, we work a lot inside and it gives us a lot of good looks on the opposite side,” said Edgerton, who was second in scoring with 11 points, followed by Schmidt with 4 points.
“That’s what our coach always tells us. For us, it opens up a lot of threes. We have the mentality that we can walk in and play with Iola. It’s not going to be easy either way. We’re not going to get blown out and neither are they.”
With the win, the Lady Lancers improved their overall record to 10-1. They face Iola Tuesday. The results from the game were not available at press time. Following Monday’s contest Zimmerman, Beckmon and Edgerton said they were ready to step up to 3A competition, although it would mean facing an opponent with more dimensions than they typically see.
“We needed a close game. We lost a close one to St. Paul, then we had another one at Uniontown, so it was good to see them come out, play hard and get the victory,” Coach Zimmerman said. “I told the girls, ‘We’re going to celebrate this one, then get back to work tomorrow.’”
