Lady Vikings end regular season on high note with pair of wins

HARTINGTON — The Wausa Lady Vikings wrapped up a winning regular season (11-10) for 2022-23 with two recent wins and are assured of at least finishing .500 or better for the first time in awhile, regardless of what happens in SubDistrict action this week.

During their two wins last week, the Lady Vikings were impressive in multiple areas.

In beating the Tri County Northeast Lady Wolfpack 50-24 on Feb. 6, Wausa set the tone defensively, giving up only single-digit points in three quarters.

Freshman Taylor Dawson (16 points and 10 deflections), junior Sienna West (11 points, nine rebounds, seven assists) and senior Abby Kaiser (11 points) led the way for the Lady Vikings.

“I thought the girls came out and played well,” Anderson said. “We got some decent shots early, but just had some trouble getting them to fall. We rebounded well on both ends and did a nice job of taking care of the basketball.

“Shot attempts is often a stat that is overlooked,” he said. “We consistently talk about rebounds and turnovers because they should lead to more attempts. Even though we didn’t shoot well, we had 20 more shots than our opponent because of limiting turnovers and offensive rebounds.”

Wausa followed that up with a big 47-38 win over Hartington-Newcastle on Feb. 7, less than a week after losing to the Lady Wildcats 52-33 in the Lewis and Clark Conference Girls Basketball Tournament.

“We didn’t play well offensively in that first match-up and I felt we had a good shot this time around with a few of the changes we wanted to make,” Anderson said.

“We had to withstand an early flurry from the Wildcats, getting down 9-0, but I thought our defense would eventually present them with some problems and it did,” he said.

“We finished the first down 13-6, then slowly started to take control of the game with great defensive play and a big night offensively for Sienna,” he said. “Sienna did a nice job of hitting some outside shots early and later in the game getting her post touches going.

“I thought our girls did a nice job of finding her in the paint, and we also had a bunch of girls make some great offensive plays in general,” he said. “Abby hit a couple of big shots in the fourth quarter and I thought her passing all night was extraordinary.”

West and Kaiser finished with 17 and 13 points apiece, respectively, while the former added nine boards and the latter dished out four assists.

“I feel pretty confident because we were in a slump for a little bit and we’ve gotten out of it and are starting to get into the groove again,” Kaiser said. “Our shots are falling and we are more confident in ourselves.

“We just kept shooting, but our defense has really helped a lot,” she said. “We have been waiting for the perfect shot and we just pass around and are more patient.

“We are way more aggressive than we were in the beginning of the year (defensively),” she said. “We are guarding away from the ball better.”

Kaiser knows the Norfolk Catholic Lady Knights will be a challenge, but she feels the capability is there for Wausa to win.

“We match up on the outside and hitting shots,” Kaiser said. “We are hitting our peak right now.”

That’s a good thing, too. The Wausa girls basketball team seems to be coming together as postseason play gets underway.

Third-seeded Wausa battled Norfolk Catholic on Feb. 14 at Cedar Catholic in Hartington, which happens to be the home of the SubDistrict’s top seed who likely will be awaiting the winner in the final on Feb. 16.

Results of that game will be in next week’s Gazette.

Prior to the contest, Anderson gave his assessment of the matchup.

“(Norfolk Catholic) is a Mid-State Conference team and plays some high-level competition,” Wausa coach Shane Anderson said. “They are extremely well-coached and play very good defense.

“It will be a tough test, but I really like where we are at, and if we can handle their full-court pressure, we will have a shot to win in the fourth quarter,” he said. “That’s all you can ask this time of year – put yourself in a position at the end of the game to be able to win.”

On the other side of the bracket are Cedar Catholic and Bloomfield.

“Cedar has been one of the top-ranked teams all year in D1, and Bloomfield has a great player in Madi Abbenhaus,” Anderson said. “This time of the year, you only have to be better than a team once, so I expect our bracket will be competitive and high-quality basketball.”

Anderson said the Lady Vikings have started to master the art of defense and playing harder than their opponent.

“When we can find a way to make teams really work for quality shots and take care of the basketball on our end, we are really tough to beat,” Anderson said. “I think the last two games have given us some confidence.

“Wausa hasn’t finished with a winning record in a while and these girls have fought through a lot this year, and our seniors over their careers,” he said. “I think they are excited about where they are and the opportunity ahead.

“We have had stretches where we have not shot the ball all that well, and you need to do that this time of year,” he said. “You can’t go whole games really struggling to put the ball in the hole and have a realistic chance of surviving. We will need to play well on both sides to survive this SubDistrict.”