Bison girls claim rare 1st-round win in Kansas tourney

GOODLAND, Kansas -- This winter may be a little bit of uncharted territory for the McCook high School girls basketball team.

The Bison girls have recorded two wins early in the 2010-11 season -- two more than the McCook girls had all last season. For the first time in many years, the Bison are assured of finishing no lower than fourth in the Topside Tip-off Tournament at Goodland, Kansas.

McCook held on for a 33-30 win over Norton, Kansas, in first-round tournament action Thursday, Dec. 9, at the Goodland Junior High gym. The win was the Bison girls' first-round Tip-Off Tournament win since 2004.

Thursday's contest probably won't go down as a classic basketball game. But the most important part of the contest, as far as the Bison girls are concerned, is the final score, as McCook won their second game in three starts this season after going 0-25 last year.

"That's the main thing, we found a way to win it," said McCook head coach Jeff Ellis. "It wasn't pretty, but we're probably going to have a handful of games this season that aren't the prettiest to watch. The main thing right now for this ball club is producing wins, and we got another one under our belt."

Bison girls rally in fourth quarter

Coach Ellis said his team rallied late after falling behind in the third quarter.

"It was kind of interesting, because we dug ourselves in a little bit of a hole, and we were down six or seven points at one point in the second half," Ellis said. "We just clawed and scratched our way back into it, we scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and ended up squeaking it out."

"It's a team we probably should have beaten by 15, 16, 17 points," Coach Ellis said. "We just had some silly errors and we kind of panicked offensively when it was crunch time. But our defense kind of kept us in the game, and then actually ended up winning the game for us with some crucial steals in the fourth quarter and gave us easy offense, when we were struggling there trying to find some offensive production because of our lack of confidence with the ball in crunch time. But our defense sealed it for us."

Gretchen Sehnert led McCook with 11 points, and Emilyne Nichols added 8 points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

Both teams struggled finding the basket, with McCook just a little worst. The Bison made 12 of 47 total field goals for 25.5 percent, while Norton was 12 of 36 form the floor for 33 percent. McCook hit 2 of 12 shots from 3-point range, while Norton missed all nine of its 3-point attempts.

Dividends later in the season

Ellis thinks the comeback win will pay dividends for his girls later in the season.

"We faced some adversity in the third quarter, and what I'm proud of is the girls came up with some plays in the fourth quarter to give ourselves a chance to win the game," he said. "Then they took the lead and got a couple nice steals and a couple easy buckets to give us a lead and seal the victory for us.

"It wasn't pretty -- it was single-digit scoring in the first, second and third quarter, but as it was for (Norton) as well. Our defense kept them to single-digit scoring, which probably saved us because our offense, we were missing easy buckets, we missed layups, just stuff that we've been talking about as being unacceptable, but they're still happening on the court.

"The girls are going to grow up in this tournament, I truly believe that. This experience in this tournament is going to lead to even further success later on in the season. A good win, and we've got to come back against a tough Burlington team."

Burlington, Colo.-McCook semifinals

McCook advances to the Tip-Off Tournament semifinals against Burlington, Colorado, Friday, Dec. 10, at 3 p.m. CST at the Max Jones Field House in Goodland. Burlington advanced with a 56-45 win over Weskan, Kansas, as the Colorado squad pulled away in the second half.

Coach Ellis said Burlington will likely throw full-court pressure against the Bison girls Friday, and the Colorado team is sound fundamentally and they take care of the ball, Ellis said.

"It's going to be a tough challenge for us," he said. "But if the girls come out with a mindset that we've got to do the things we need to do to be successful, and be a little more confident with the basketball on offense in our hands, we're going to be OK."

The McCook-Burlington winner advances to the girls championship game Saturday, Dec. 11, at 6 p.m. CST at the Max Jones Field House. Wray, Colorado, and Ottawa, Kansas, meet in Friday's other semifinal.

Semifinal losers play Saturday for third place at 2 p.m. CST at the Jones Field House.

The Bison girls will snap a four-year string of playing in the seventh-place game at the Kansas tournament.