WP girls go 1-1 last week

    The Wauneta-Palisade girls basketball team split games with teams with winning records last week.
    WP traveled to Grant Friday to take on Perkins County (7-5).
    The game remained close with two minutes left in the first quarter and the Broncos trailing 10-11. But WP was outscored 2-6 over those remaining minutes and trailed 12-17 going into the second quarter.
    The Broncos went cold from the field in the second quarter.
    As Head Coach Matt Cox put it, the Broncos had a terrible first half shooting the ball.
    “Our shot selection was good, we got great looks, we just couldn’t get anything to fall,” he continued.
    Despite trailing 14-31 WP came out gunning in the second half. The Broncos cut their deficit to 29-41 in the third quarter and kept chipping away in the fourth.
    With five minutes left in the game they pulled to within nine points, 34-43. The gap shrunk to 40-48 with two minutes left, but WP couldn’t get closer than five points, 44-49.
    “I was proud of our fight in the second half, we kept grinding and defending and fought our way back into it, but Perkins County did a good job of taking care of the ball and making free throws down the stretch,” Cox said.
    Peyton Cox had 20 points and 17 rebounds. GraCee Goings scored 11 points.
    The next night WP hosted short-handed Garden County (6-4).
    Cox said it was one of those games the Broncos were just good enough.
    Five Broncos scored in the first quarter, but WP still trailed 15-16 at the end of the first quarter.
    The WP defense put the clamps on Garden County in the second and third quarters, only allowing 10 total points.
    With its defense leading the way, the Broncos took a 37-26 lead into the fourth quarter.
    Six WP players scored in the fourth quarter to round out the 55-39 win.
    “The game felt closer than the score was at the end, we did a lot of good things on both sides of the ball, but weren’t really great at anything. We created some chaos in our full court press, leading to some easy baskets, which was the difference in the game,” Cox said.
    Once more P. Cox had 17 rebounds. and led WP with 17 points
Up next
    WP will play Paxton Thursday. The Tigers’ only two losses have come to Class D1 No. 1 Maywood/Hayes Center.
    “Paxton will be a really good challenge from a D2 opponent that is very similar to us with size and solid guard play. It’ll be a great test on senior night, as we get ready for conference play next week,” Cox said.
    The RPAC tournament will begin Saturday in Benkelman.
    The third seed, WP will play sixth seeded Dundy County Stratton at 5 p.m. MT.
    Second round games will be played Monday at Trenton with games to follow Thursday at Paxton.
    The finals and consolation games will be Saturday at McCook Community College.