COLONY — The Crest Lady Lancers wrapped up the regular season with a few Senior Night fireworks during Friday’s 55-15 victory over the Yates Center Wildcats.
A fast start put the Lady Lancers ahead early while their defense slowed Yates Center’s offense to a crawl.
Crest held the Wildcats to four points in the first half while posting 34 points in an all-around team effort.
“It was a sad night because it’s Senior Night and we got to say goodbye to our seniors, but they were not going to lose on their night,” Crest coach Steve Zimmerman said.
With the Wildcats struggling to find their footing early on, the Lady Lancers took control with a one-two punch combination of senior guards Aylee Beckmon and Kaelin Nilges. The pair combined for all 14 of Crest’s first quarter points. The pair added another trio of field goals in the second quarter.
While Nilges cooled down, freshman forward Gracyn Ellington got hot with nine of her 11 points.
“It was Senior Night and we wanted to go out there and give it our all and end on a win,” Nilges said. “We wanted to end on a win. We’ve played big teams before. We weren’t scared.”
Riding a 30-point advantage after the first half, the Lady Lancers pumped the brakes in the second half. A trio of field goals by senior forward Kinley Edgerton and a 3-pointer from senior forward Allison Weatherman provided the perfect send-off for the seniors, who Coach Zimmerman soon began to sub out to rest up for the postseason.
With the win, the Lady Lancers improve to 19-4. Beckmon ended the evening with a team-leading 13 points, followed by Nilges with 12, Ellington with 11 and Edgerton with eight. They will have a bye in the opening round of the postseason, facing either Northwich (14-8) or Pleasanton (8-13) March 2. As returning regional champions, Crest has a target on their back and is likely to receive every team’s best shot regardless of the team’s record coming into the contest.
“It’s going to be hard, and we know the competition is going to be good,” said Beckmon. “Even if we get past them, it’s going to be another hard team after them. We’re going to have to take this week, prepare and show we want to win. We can’t just go in and expect to win. We’re going to have to fight for it.”
As for Yates Center, the Wildcats’ record fell to 10-13. Freshman guard Loryn Kress’ 3-pointer gave her a team-leading 3 points, followed by freshman guard Tristyn Steel, junior guard Cayten Cummings and sophomore guard McKynzee Burkholder with a bucket each. Yates Center enters the postseason as the ninth seed in the Arma substate and heads on the road Friday to face eighth-seed Southeast (11-11) Friday.
“Crest is a good team,” Yates Center coach Eric Busteed said.
“We’ll get back to work. You have to have a short memory and move on.
“My message to them was sometimes we tend to come out real tight. Whether we’re winning or losing, they need to loosen up, and I’m trying to get that out of them earlier. They won’t quit.”
