Bearcat girls close out regular season

By Mark Johnson, coach
KCC 57 – WAO 77
KCC wrapped up their regular season schedule last week with two games against Section 8 front runners. The first matchup was against the WAO Ponies at Kittson Central on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
It was not a good opening half for the home team. KCC struggled to initiate their offensive game against the active Pony defense. Warren feasted on the Bearcat turnovers and simply dominated the first half of play. The Bearcats remained off balance for the entire first half of play and found themselves trailing 48-24 at the break.
KCC steadied the ship in the second half of play and made a handful of runs to try and chip away at the Pony lead. Each time the Bearcats started to build a little bit of momentum and start to mount a bit of a comeback, WAO would have an answer of their own and keep the Bearcats at arms length. KCC never got the lead back below double digits and the evening came to an end with the Bearcats on the wrong side of a 77-57 final score.
We fought in the second half and actually posted better second half results than our opponent, but we had just dug too deep of a hole.
Scoring leaders: Kaydence White 25, Afton Lindgren 11, Greta Kuznia 9, Hanna Warnke 4, Aubree Pankratz 2, Kami Hanson 2, Kasey Waling 2, Halle Hanson 2
Rebound leaders: Kaydence White 12
Assist leaders: Hanna Warnke 4, Kaydence White 3
KCC 73 – Kelliher-Northome 86
The schedule did not get any easier for the Bearcats. Friday afternoon, Feb. 20, KCC hit the road to challenge the No. 2 ranked team in Minnesota Class A, the Kelliher/Northome Mustangs. The Mustangs had been destroying opponents all year long with a high-powered offense and a pesky defense.
The opening 12 minutes of play were just what the Bearcats had wanted to accomplish. KCC only trailed 34-28 with just under 6 minutes to play in the first half. The Mustang defense, however, kicked into high gear and fueled an 18-4 run to end the first half of play and had the Bearcats staring at a 52-32 deficit.
The second half did not get off to the best start for the Bearcats either as the Mustangs continued their barrage of three-point shots. Kelliher-Northome went 15 of 40 from beyond the arc for the game. As the half progressed, KCC started to find some answers and just kept fighting to stay in the game. The Bearcats started to attack the Mustang defense, made the extra pass on the offensive end of the floor and attacked the offensive glass. The Bearcats, just like the previous game, posted the better numbers in the second half but could not overcome the halftime deficit and fell to the Mustangs 86-73.
We fought all night. We had a six minute stretch at the end of the first half that we would like to have back, but we never caved. The fight was there all night long.
Scoring leaders: Greta Kuznia 41, Kaydence White 20, Kasey Waling 7, Afton Lindgen 4, Hanna Warnke 1
Rebound leaders: Kaydence White 12, Greta Kuznia 6, Afton Lindgren 5
Assist leaders: Hanna Warnke 8, Kaydence White 4