Broncos third at girls’ Cattle Trail Tournament

    The saying may be “two out of three ain’t bad,” but that won’t get you far with the Wauneta-Palisade girls’ basketball team.
    The Broncos won two out of three contests at last week’s Cattle Trail Tournament, starting with an opening round win over Decatur Community, Kansas.
    WP Head Coach Matt Cox said his Broncos played good enough  that first night to grab a win in a very competitive Cattle Trail Tournament.
    The teams were neck and neck through the game’s first half and headed to their locker rooms tied 19-19 at halftime.
    Cox said WP gave up too many offensive rebounds in the first half.
    The Broncos turned the tables on Decatur Community with a strong defensive effort in the third quarter, holding the Red Devils to just two three pointers. WP made three 3s of their own on its way to taking a 35-25 lead.
    WP went on to hit five field goals in the fourth quarter, but went 1-7 from the charity stripe. Still, the Broncos claimed a 46-38 win.
    Cox credited Decatur Community with giving WP all sorts of trouble with their man to man, and added, the Red Devils were pretty efficient from beyond the three-point line.
    “We did a great job getting to the free throw line, but we were pretty mediocre at 5-20,” Cox said. It’s a stat he says has to get better.
    The win advanced WP through the bracket to a game with Southwest.
    Friday’s contest was one of those nights you’d like to forget about, Cox said.
    The Roughriders set WP on its heels right from the start. WP trailed 6-14 at the end of the first quarter and 15-37 at halftime.
    “Southwest got off to a great start and we never looked like we were in a rhythm. We had too many turnovers and gave up offensive rebounds and our defense was really slow in rotations,” Cox said.
    The Broncos dropped to the consolation game with a 31-66 loss.
    For all their struggles Friday, the Broncos came out on fire the following afternoon.
    WP had a ten-point lead, 13-3, with 2:30 left in the first quarter and increased it to 21-7 at the end of the first eight minutes.
    The Raiders were far from finished. WP cooled from the floor and only scored three points in the second half, shrinking its lead to 24-19 at halftime.
    Two minutes into the second half WP’s lead had shrunk to 26-24. MV took the lead, but once the Broncos regained the lead 30-27 WP never looked back and claimed a 53-41 win.
    “Med. Valley ran a ton of on ball screens and we handled it really well. We controlled the tempo in transition and in the half court. Our rebounding was much better and we were glad to go 2-1 during the week,” Cox said.
Up next
    Friday WP will battle South Platte on its home court. The Knights are 2-3 after a losses last week to Colorado Class 2A #1 Sedgwick County 51-53 and an unbeaten Leyton team 50-53. Cox expects it to be another challenging road game.
    The Broncos then host Sandhills Valley (1-1) Saturday.