Yates Center High’s girls ended tournament week with a flourish Friday.
The Wildcats, trailing Fort Scott’s junior varsity by seven points in the fourth quarter, scored 10 straight to take the lead, and then sealed a 34-33 win with some clutch free throws down the stretch.
“This is huge for us,” Wildcat head coach Eric Busteed said. “We haven’t had a ton of success. When you get those opportunities, you have to seize them.”
The Wildcat boys weren’t as successful in their tournament finale, dropping a 50-42 decision to St. Paul.
YATES Center’s girls trailed 28-21 entering the fourth quarter, but got a quick boost from sophomore Cayten Cummings, who scored along the baseline and then hit a pair of free throws to close the gap to 28-25.
Freshman Mckynzee Burkholder was next, hitting back-to-back jumpers to push the Wildcats in front. Cummings then went 1 of 2 from the line for a 31-28 lead.
Mary Maloun’s free throw with just over 2 minutes remaining ended Fort Scott’s six-minute scoring drought, and closed the Wildcat lead to 31-29, but that was answered by a free throw from Yates Center’s Jayda Rice.
Cummings hit 3 of 4 charities in the final minutes to give Yates Center a 34-31 lead.
Fort Scott had a shot to tie, but Kodi Caper’s desperation 3-point attempt with 1.8 seconds left was well short. Maloun collected the ball and scored at the buzzer, but it was only enough to bring the final score to 34-33.
Cummings wound up with 24 points to lead Yates Center. Burkholder added four.
“We were aggressive getting the ball inside late, and we played good defense,” Busteed said. “The biggest takeaway for us is we’re getting other girls willing to shoot the ball. Aubrey Chambers hit a huge 3 for us, and Mac Burkholder helped us with some nice drives. We can’t just let Cummings do all of our scoring. Everybody has to shoot.
“I’m proud of them.”
IN THE BOYS’ contest, Yates Center trailed 12-3 after one quarter, and never could overcome the hot shooting of St. Paul’s Brec Norris and Preston Heitman. The duo combined for five 3-pointers as Norris scored 20 and Heitman 18.
The Indians maintained their advantage, 23-14 at halftime, and 35-30 after three.
“We had another slow start,” Wildcat head coach Lane Huffman said, “which makes it tough once you start doing things correctly.
