Katrina Strickler cradled Crest High’s Lady Lancers’ new hardware in her arms. Strickler and fellow senior Shayla Stephens couldn’t stop smiling Saturday night.
“This is amazing,” Strickler said, after the Lady Lancers did something no other Crest High girls’ basketball team has done — win a substate championship and qualify for a state tournament.
The Lady Lancers punched their first-ever state trip with a 35-13 win over Altoona-Midway High’s Jets. Crest is the 2012 Kansas Class 1A, Division II Substate Basketball Tournament champion.
“We knew Altoona wanted to get revenge because we beat them by one point twice this season. Plus they had just won two games in a row,” Strickler said.
The Jets went 0-20 in the regular season before defeating Elk Valley, also 0-20, in the first round. But a night after scoring a season-high 56 points in rolling over Kansas School for the Deaf, the Jets were held to just 13 points by the Lady Lancers.
“I’m just so proud of these girls,” said Lady Lancer head coach Daniel Buller, who shaved off his trademark beard following the game. He said that was the deal. “If they won tonight, I’d shave it off so I did.”
Crest posted its sixth win of the year in the title game. The Lady Lancers (6-17) go into this week’s 2012 Kansas Class 1A, Division II State Basketball Tournament as the No. 8 seed.
They play No. 1 seed Ingalls (21-2) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Fort Hays State’s Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays.
But Strickler and Stephens and the rest of the Lady Lancers weren’t thinking about first-round opponents in the Allen County Community College gym Saturday night.
“We began playing as a team. Tonight, the adrenaline was pumping and we just wanted to win this,” Stephens said.
Strickler’s only two points of the game came at the 6:17 mark of the first quarter. She hit two free throws to open the game’s scoring. The Lady Lancers pushed out to a 7-0 lead before the Jets got on the scoreboard on a field goal by DarShawna Lour.
Crest outscored Altoona-Midway 8-5 in the second quarter. The Jets stayed in the game, trailing the Lady Lancers by just eight points at halftime, 15-7.
But that all changed in the third quarter. Erica Holman scored six points for the Lady Lancers. Those combined with a basket apiece by Emily Frank and Kurston Gilliland along with a solid defensive performance, the Lady Lancers took complete control.
They held the Jets scoreless in the third quarter and were up 25-7. Altoona-Midway’s Brittney Reilly hit one of two free throws with 6:40 left in the game.
Stephens banked home a three-pointer for Crest to push its lead to 20 points, 28-8.
“We got out to an early lead and the confidence the girls played with tonight was tremendous,” Buller said. “We played very good ball at times tonight. There’s plenty to improve on but we’re playing pretty well right now.”
