CLAFLIN — On Tuesday, the Claflin High School girls’ basketball team squared off against St. John, which is ranked No. 2 in Class 1A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association, but came up short.
On Friday night, the Lady Wildcats, who are ranked No. 4, found themselves upsetting Wilson, the No. 3-ranked team in Class 1A Division-II, 61-47.
“We played OK,” Claflin head coach Toby Holmes said. “We could have executed better on offense. We could have played better on defense and rebounded better, but a wins a win. I mean, you’ll take all those you can get.”
The Claflin girls found themselves down 7-2 after Wilson’s Karlie Steinle, who finished with a game-high 20 points, hit a 3-pointer and Taylor Schoenhofer got an offensive board and putback.
“She’s a pretty good player, isn’t she,” Holmes said of Steinle. “They had several players that are pretty solid. Their post player is pretty solid and Steinle is a pretty solid player. They’ve just got solid players. They’re not ranked for nothing. They’re a good team.”
The Lady Wildcats began to fight back after Natalie Hoffman, who matched Courtney Liebl with a team-high 15 points, hit a foul shot and Sydney Rugan got an offensive rebound of her own and put the ball back up for two points.
At the end of one quarter, Claflin was down 10-7, but a quick surge from the Lady Wildcats turned things around.
Within the first two minutes of the start of the second quarter, the Lady Wildcats rattled off a 6-1 swing to put them up 13-11.
Wilson managed to knot the game at 17 with 4:14 left, but Claflin, led by Morgan Hekele, Janae Hekele and Liebl, who each scored four points in the Lady Wildcats’ 20-point quarter to take a 27-26 lead into the locker room at half time.
Claflin had three girls, — Janae Hekele, Jennifer Hitschmann and Liebl — come out in the third quarter and drain 3-pointers to help the Lady Wildcats extend their lead by outscoring the Dragons 15-11.
“We played with a little more confidence in that third quarter,” Holmes said. “We’ve got good shooters. We’ve got good players, but if they don’t play like good players than they are just players.
“When they play with some confidence, they’re pretty good.”
The Lady Wildcats put the whole package together in the fourth quarter, playing defense well enough to hold Wilson to 10 points while scoring 19 points to put the game out of reach.
“I really don’t know,” Holmes said when asked why his players played with more confidence in the second half. “We talked at half about being a little more patient on offense and rebound the basketball and play better defense. That’s what we talked about.
“They came out and had confidence on offense. You just never know what spurs them on, but whatever it was, we’ll keep it.”
Holmes said that he just hopes he can get his team to play a full game like they did in the second half.
“We just got to continue to get better,” Holmes said. “Our rebounding in the first half wasn’t very good. It picked up in the second half, but we’ve got to come out and play a whole game like that.
“I thought our third quarter was good, but again, we’ve got to play a whole game like that.”
Claflin is bask in action on Tuesday when they travel to Larned to face the Indians.