Halftime: Collegiate 30, Beloit 19

Collegiate’s pressure isn’t allowing Beloit much space to set up its offense. Beloit already has 12 turnovers and Collegiate has taken full advantage, grabbing a 30-19 halftime lead. Ashia Woods has some of the best instincts on defense I have seen, making her just as good defensive player as offense. She has three steals and almost had two more. She also has scored 13 points for WCS and Beloit has no answer for her. I don’t expect much to change second half, Collegiate looks pretty in control of this one.

End of 1st Quarter: Collegiate 11, Beloit 8

Ashia Woods got two easy baskets off steals early for a 7-4 lead. Not too much interesting to report on, except Beloit is turning the ball over against the Collegiate pressure.

Pre-game

#3 seed Wichita Collegiate girls (21-2) takes on Beloit (18-5) next up. Not a very large following from either of thes schools.

Final: Rock Creek 40, Riley County 32

In its first Class 3A tournament appearance, Rock Creek wins its first post-season game in school history. Over its rival. Can’t beat that. Not to mention Rock Creek successively defeated Riley three times this season. Once Rock Creek scored to open a 32-25 lead early in the fourth quarter it went to a four corners motion offense that drained much of the clock off. Rock Creek kept things a little interesting by missing four straight free throws, but Riley couldn’t take advantage. You’re not going to find many pretty stats in a 40-32 game, but Rock Creek’s Becky Lightfoot had 7 points and 10 rebounds and Dana Elliott handed out six assists. She’s the real deal. Taylor Ebert led Rock Creek in scoring with 11. A potential Elliott-Ashia Woods matchup could be very, very interesting.

End of 3rd Quarter: Rock Creek 30, Riley County 25

Riley’s Beth Husted picked up her fourth foul with 7:50 left. That allowed Rock Creek to break open the game a little, but Riley was able to climb back to within 5 at the end of the break. But I was too busy being amused by the Riley student section. The front line is made up of: the joker, a cop, a cowboy, the mascot head of a falcon, a hawaiin, a snowboarder, a loose version of a gang member, Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro, a fireman, a farmer, a sombrero complete with a poncho, an army guy, jean cut-offs to match a jean top as well, a toga and finally a mountain man. Thumbs up.

Halftime: Riley County 16, Rock Creek 16

Now I can see why these battles between the two rivals are always so low-scoring – both team is so patient with the ball. Rock Creek is perfectly fine working the ball around the perimeter and post against Riley’s 2-3 zone and it is leading to long possessions. Riley is forcing the issue a little more, as seen by its 13 turnovers in the first half – 8 unforced. That has limited Riley to only 11 shots so far, but it has made seven of them to stay in the game. Rock Creek has failed to pull away in this game due to a horrible start shooting (4-of-22, that would be 18.2% folks). But off those misses, Rock Creek has found most of its offense grabbing seven offensive boards.

The matchup between Riley’s Beth Husted and Rock Creek’s Dana Elliott, who are step-sisters – a story you can check out in today’s Eagle, has yet to pick up much steam. Husted has battled early foul trouble and it looks like she’ll some more of the bench in the third quarter with 3 fouls in the first half. For Elliott being such a good player, it’s amazing how Riley’s zone backs off knowing how unselfish a player she is. She’s dished out two assists though.

Not much separation this half, I’m sure things will begin to pick up.

End of 1st Quarter: Riley County 9, Rock Creek 9

Riley County is the defending champions and have experience in this post-season tournament, but not much returning to this team. That has shown early on with seven turnovers already, only two of them forced. But Riley’s Beth Husted is already in foul trouble picking up two early on. Rock Creek hasn’t made many shots early, but is killing them on the offensive glass to stay in this game.

Pre-game

We’re minutes away from tip-off in the first game of the day, #2 seed Rock Creek (21-1) will take on rival and felllow Mid East member #7 seed Riley County (17-6), the defending champions.

Hutch is always a great place to be and there is a good following from both teams, but I’m gonna have to give the edge to the Rock Creek as a whole. But Riley County has a better, or at least more interesting, front row without question.

So far this season Rock Creek has handed Riley County two of its defeats and this is a very intense rivalry. I’m liking Rock Creek, but that’s just me. Time to find out.