During Friday night’s Princeville Regional title game, the Wethersfield Lady Geese were ahead for the first three quarters of play, but Abingdon-Avon outscored Wethersfield 19-10 in the fourth quarter to pull out a 46-40 regional title win.
In a regional that was stacked with four LTC powerhouses and four of the six teams had at least 20 wins apiece, it’s the sixth-seeded Abingdon-Avon Tornadoes (25-7) that are moving on to Tuesday’s Bushnell-Prairie City Sectional semifinal game. There, they’ll face fifth-seeded Lewistown (19-13), a 50-34 winner over the second-seeded Havana Ducks (20-12).
To put things in their proper context, it’s typical for one regional to have two 20-win teams, occasionally there are three, but it’s highly unusual for a six-team field to have four 20-win teams and a fifth have nearly 20 wins (Princeville’s season ended at 18-13).
On the other side of the Bushnell-Prairie City Sectional, the second-seeded Annawan Bravettes (26-4) will take on top-seeded Illini Bluffs 26-4) at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Abingdon-Avon and Lewistown semifinal game will follow at 7:30 p.m.
Abingdon-Avon 46, Wethersfield 40
Both teams struggled at the onset of Friday’s regional title game. Long-range shots weren’t falling for either team and both teams struggled with turning the ball over. Wethersfield senior Kennady Anderson was the first player to put points on the board, giving Wethersfield a 2-0 lead.
Junior forward Emersyn Nelson made one of two free throws, but the only other points came from junior Kendall Vincent. Her outside jumper gave the Lady Geese a 5-0 lead with 30 seconds left in the opening quarter.
Freshman Kennedy Quinn made the front end of a pair to finally break the seal for A-Town with 12 seconds left in the frame.
Both teams got into more of an offensive rhythm in the second quarter and both teams started connecting from beyond the arc. Freshman Lana Scott provided a spark by nailing two 3-pointers and scoring eight total points in the second quarter.
A-Town freshman Kaydin Quinn warmed up as well and hit a pair of treys in the back and forth second quarter. Lajaya Angel hit a baseline jumper to put Wethersfield on top, 13-11, but a drive-in bucket by Kennedy Quinn tied the game up at 13-all.
While being closely guarded by Kaydin Quinn all game and often double-teamed, Kennady Anderson made a nice move through traffic, giving the Lady Geese the lead back at 16-13 with 1:20 left in the first half. Scott then hit a three from the top of the key to extend the lead to 19-13. Anderson then made good on both free tosses to round out the first half scoring.
Wethersfield would take a 21-13 lead into the locker room at the half.
The Lady Geese would get their biggest lead of the game when Scott drove through the lane, giving Wethersfield a 10-point advantage at 28-18 with about four minutes left to play in the third quarter.
The high intensity game cranked up a notch as A-Town began to claw their way back. Kaydin Quinn made a rebound bucket to pull the Tornadoes within four at 28-24. Shortly after Kennady Anderson capitalized on two free throws (30-24), Kennedy Quinn nailed a 3-pointer from the wing for the 30-27 third quarter score.
There was a lot of proverbial punching and counter punching throughout the first half of the fourth quarter. Junior guard Emma Gunther hit an outside jumper to give A-Town the 34-32 lead. Anderson and Angel then made consecutive drives to the basket to put the Lady Geese back in the lead at 36-34.
With three minutes left in the game, Gunther found Kennady Quinn open for a trey to give the Tornadoes a 37-36 lead. A floater in the lane by Kennedy Quinn, a rebound basket by Redding and a basket by Avery Stegall would extend A-Town’s lead to 43-39.
Kennady Anderson made the final basket of her distinguished high school career with under a minute left to play and the Lady Geese down, 40-43. Kennedy Quinn made a free throw and Redding made a basket with a few seconds left for a final score of 46-40.
Kennedy Quinn scored a game-high 18 points, Redding added 16 and Kaydin Quinn chipped in with eight points in the win.
For the Lady Geese, Lana Scott led the way with 15 points, Kennady Anderson had 12 and Angel scored seven.
Four seniors closed out their basketball careers at Wethersfield and their coach,Todd Hansen, was filled with many different emotions when thinking about the contributions of his four senior players.
“Cora, Paige, Elle and Kennady entered high school basketball at a time when the program only had two seniors, two juniors and no sophomores,” said Hansen. “They were forced to play on varsity when they probably could’ve dominated on the JV team — not to mention the fact that we were playing with masks on due to Covid,” he added.
Hansen then noted the progression of the basketball program from the time his seniors came in as freshman until their final game of their senior season.
When the (now) four seniors were freshman, Hansen said the varsity record was 1-13 and the following year it was 8-20. “And we took some 40-50 point beatings, but they didn’t quit,” he adddd.
“It’s a testament to the type of kids they are. Last year we were 20-13 and third in the conference. This season we were 26-5, took second at the Brimfield Tournament, were Warkins Tourney champs, second in the conference and third in the LTC tourney,” said Hansen.
“This program has been turned around because they had the guts to stick it out through tough times, have great attitudes and to never give up. They were great teammates and leaders to the younger kids. They’ll be greatly missed, but their legacy will last for a long time.”
The Wethersfield frosh-soph team sported an impressive record of 20-1 and a few seasoned varsity players will return next season. “Juniors Lajaya, Kendall and Emersyn will look to continue the success next season, with help from sophomores Megan, Emilia, Camryn and freshmen Lana and Ashley,” said Hansen. “We’ll also have a very good group of 8th grade girls joining the team.”
