Wausa’s Lady Vikings are still in search of their first win
CREIGHTON — The Wausa Lady Vikings are now 0-4 this season after dropping two tough decisions to Creighton and Elgin/Pope John this past week.
Creighton used an experienced roster loaded with seniors to pull away for the 61-39 win.
“Once again our youth showed as they kind of dictated things in the early going and jumped on us early,” Wausa head coach Capp Bengston said. “I was proud of the girls though as we cut it from about a 15-point deficit to five right before half. That shows that one, we don’t have any quit in us, and two, once we settle in, we can play with a team like that.”
Wausa was led by Sienna West (15 points), Alexa Cunningham (11 points, 11 rebounds) and Abby Kaiser (seven points, five rebounds, four steals, three assists).
On Saturday, the Lady Vikings fell 67-40 at Elgin.
“We would have our hands full: They are always well coached and very disciplined,” Bengston said. “We finally started a game strong and jumped out to a 7-0 lead. At half we were only down 21-15 and played the game at our pace. It was such a cool experience going into the locker room at halftime.
“The looks on the girl’s faces was the look of, ‘Hey it’s starting to come together. We can play with a team like this.’ Now that team pulled away from us in the second half but you knew they would make a run because all good teams do. Overall, I was pleased and I feel like after four games of some ups and downs, our girls are on the brink of a breakthrough.”
Cunningham finished with 17 points and five rebounds, Kaiser chipped in with eight points and five rebounds, Blair Wakeley added eight points and West hit for five points and seven boards.”
Kaiser said the team has three goals to master in free throws, turnovers and rebounds and she felt they did better in all those areas.
“In the other games, we might have only done good in one of them, but this time we were better at all three of them,” Kaiser said. “It was about focus and confidence and connecting it all together. I think we are tired of losing so we tried to push ourselves as hard as we could to do a lot better.
“We boxed out a lot better and rebounded the ball and we got out and pushed the ball a little bit more.”
Kaiser also noted the team was more aggressive which was an area some players noted earlier needed to be amped up.
“It probably came from anger,” Kaiser said with a chuckle. “We had a better connection with each other and we were working hard on all the three things and getting on the same page.”
Next up, Wausa travels to Wynot Friday after playing host to Gayville-Volin Tuesday night.
“My goals for the week are to build on the way that we played in the first half of the Elgin game,” Bengston said. “That is one of the two or three best teams that we will see all year and we played right with them for two and a half quarters. If some shots fall, maybe we go into halftime leading that team. But if we play with that same level of urgency and attention to detail then there are some upcoming winnable games.
“We just need to continue on using every second of every game as a learning experience. I’ve told the girls several times that I don’t care much about the scores of our games right now. We are now starting to apply some of our winning habits to games, and for spurts of the game they are starting to see the results.”
Bengston is not bashful about giving his girls the respect he feels they have earned.
“We will be just fine moving forward,” he said. “I love my team and I love how hard they play from start to finish.”
Wausa 8 7 15 10 — 40
Elgin/Pope John 13 8 23 23 — 67
SCORING Wausa - Alexa Cunningham, 17; Blair Wakeley, 8; Abby Kaiser, 8; Sienna West, 5; Kilee Thorell, 2. Elgin/Pope John - Keyera Eisenhauer, 21; Ashlynne Charf, 16; Kaylee Ramold, 9; Taylynne Charf, 8; Skyler Meis, 5; B. Martinsen, 4; Madelynn Kolm, 3; Ellie Ruterbories, 1.
REBOUNDS Wausa - Sienna West, 7; Alexa Cunningham, 5; Abby Kaiser, 5; Kilee Thorell, 4; Holly Johnson, 2; Alexis Munter, 1; Teyah Anderson, 1; Blair Wakeley, 1; Hadley Vanness, 1.
ASSISTS Wausa - Sienna West, 4; Blair Wakeley, 3; Abby Kaiser, 2; Alexa Cunningham, 1.
STEALS Wausa - Hadley Vanness, 1; Abby Kaiser, 1; Blair Wakeley, 1; Holly Johnson, 1; Kilee Thorell, 1.
Wausa 7 12 9 11 — 39
Creighton 18 11 24 8 — 61
SCORING Wausa - Sienna West, 15; Alexa Cunningham, 11; Abby Kaiser, 7; Anika Alonzo, 6.
REBOUNDS Wausa - Alexa Cunningham, 11; Abby Kaiser, 5; Sienna West, 2; Anika Alonzo, 1; Blair Wakeley, 1.
ASSISTS Wausa - Abby Kaiser, 3; Blair Wakeley, 1; Sienna West, 1.
STEALS Wausa - Abby Kaiser, 4; Kilee Thorell, 1; Blair Wakeley, 1.
