Yates Center High’s Lady Wildcats were a half-second away from collecting their second win of the year Friday night. The home crowd was on its feet, the student section was poised to erupt, a local newspaper photographer was aiming her lens toward the Yates Center bench in an attempt to capture a reaction snap of one of the exuberant Cats.
Unfortunately for Yates Center, Fredonia frosh Whitney Solander didn’t get the memo. With the home team up two with eight seconds left in the game, the Yellow Jacket managed to get the ball across halfcourt against the Lady Cats’ stringent press. With three seconds to go, Solander slipped away from her defender; finding a gap in the defense, she received a skip pass from a fellow Yellow, squared her feet, and fired a 3-pointer, which whistled through the bottom of the net as the buzzer sounded. Fredonia wins by one point in the 47-46 conetest.
“You know what,” said a magnanimous Chris Wells, the Lady Cats’ head coach, “all year we haven’t played with that passion, and tonight we really showed it. They were fired up. It’s a very tough loss for us — we’re now 1-17 on the year, and I thought we were going to pull something out there. But we’re not going to hang our heads.”
Nor should they. The Wildcats and Yellow Jackets, to the extent that either species is capable, traded punches all night. Yates Center’s leading scorer, senior Shayna Karmann, scored 21 in the effort, depositing twelve of those in the critical third quarter. Aubrey Smith followed with eight.
Of course it wasn’t completely unblemished basketball for Yates Center — the Lady Cats missed 10 free throws in the fourth quarter, at a time when even one might have made the difference — but Wells was thrilled by the effort. “We played well against a pretty good Fredonia team. We never come in expecting to win, but we come in and fight for it for 32 minutes, and I believe the girls did that — they fought hard for 32 minutes.”
Malorrie Kukovich led Fredonia with 18, including three key free throws in the game’s final minutes. Solander emerged as the Yellow Jackets’ second leading scorer with twelve — all 3-pointers — including the coup de grace to end the game.
“It came down to the little things, that’s what hurt us the most. Those things will come back on you. But we’re going to take this game as fire,” said an ever-optimistic Wells, “and build on it for next week, when we go to Burlington and we get a Jayhawk win here for Senior Night. And, hopefully, we’ll take that into substate with the same kind of momentum. You know, tonight, it was just a great game.”
Lady Wildcats lose on final shot
