WP girls, 13-10, continue streak of winning seasons

    With a schedule filled with larger schools, Wauneta-Palisade Head Coach Matt Cox said his team had a season that the girls could really be proud of.
    “Any time you can have a winning season with our schedule, its quite an accomplishment,” he added.
    Cox pointed out WP only lost two Class D2 games this year, both the Medicine Valley.
    “Unfortunately, one of them was at our subdistrict final. It was a fun game and we played well we were just a few missed shots away from getting to the fourth straight district final of these senior girls careers,” Cox said.
    WP was led by seniors Cali Cox, Chloe Stehno, Halle Bardsley and Peyton Vrbas.
    Cox said they were great leaders and role models for the underclassman.
    “I’ve told this team all year long that my favorite thing about them is how much they all love each other. We’d have some pretty competitive practices, and things would get heated, but at the end of the day they all understood we were in this thing together,” he said.
    C. Cox averaged 3.9 assists and 2.6 steals per game to lead WP and finished her career with 310 assists which breaks Seri Sandman’s record of 274.
    Stehno was second in rebounds per game with 7.6.
    Bardsley started and saw action in 22 games for the Broncos.
    “A huge thank you to my senior girls! I hope they learned some lessons in basketball that they can use in life, I’m going to miss them and we’ll have some huge shoes to fill next season,” Cox said.
    Juniors Peyton Cox and GraCee Goings led the Broncos in scoring, averaging 15.9 and 12.4 points per game, respectively.
    P. Cox also led WP in with a 15.8 rebounds per game, an average that’s second in the state behind Omaha Benson’s Zakiyyah Muhammad at 18.5 rpg and 34th in the country according to MaxPreps. P. Cox increased her previous record of rebounds in a season from 310 to 363.
    Goings tied the Broncos’ single game three point record with eight against Dundy County Stratton in December.
    “My favorite record of all is the team of 22-23 are finally the sole record holders of the single game three point record with 11. It’s a record they’ve been after for a few years and was really happy that they finally got over the hump,” Cox said.
    McKenna Doetker played in 22 of the Broncos’ 23 games and Izzy Stehno played in 20 games.
    Medicine Valley, which won the D2-9 subdistrict, lost to No. 2 Shelton in subdistricts 30-61.
    RPAC opponent Paxton lost in districts to No. 3 St. Mary’s 42-75.
    One upset in D2 districts was Leyton, the 13th seed, beating No. 4 Parkview Christian 46-29 sending the Warriors to state for the first time since Gurley went in 1977.
    In Class D1, Maywood/Hayes Center, Alma and South Loup all lost in districts.
    The state tournament begins Wednesday and the championship games will be televised Saturday on Nebraska Public Media.