WORTHINGTON -- The Jackson County Central Huskies practically willed themselves back to contention in their girls basketball game against Worthington Thursday night at the WHS gym, climbing back from a 50-32 halftime deficit to within one point with about eight minutes remaining in the second half. But the Trojans held firm, winning 89-80.
“We came out and played well,” said JCC head coach Rafiel York. “I told ‘em (at halftime) I wanted to trim six (points) every six minutes … and if we’d done that we would have won the game.”
Junior Sadie Voss and sophomore Maci Farmer led a furious Huskies comeback and they combined for 54 points, with Voss scoring 32 and Farmer 22. Voss hit four 3-point shots and Farmer hit five.
“They’re great players. Sadie’s a great leader. She pretty much willed us. She was the one in the locker room saying, ‘Hey, we can win this.’ And Maci, she’s such a good shooter,” said York.
When Voss meshed a 3-pointer with 8:36 remaining in the second half, the Trojans’ lead was cut to 69-66. Voss again, inside, made it 69-68.
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But with three and half minutes to go, Worthington upped its lead to 80-73. A steal by Voss and a Georgianna Wenzel layup cut it to 82-78 with a minute and a half left, but the Trojans took over from there.
“They were just coming at us with two or three people, and at times we were taking too many early shots,” explained WHS coach Eric Lindner, who said his team attempted too many “catch-and-shoot” shots.
For the game, JCC converted 11 of 18 3-pointers. Worthington made 9 of 27.
“They’re a lot like Windom. If you give ‘em a chance to shoot the 3, they’ll bury it,” Lindner said.
But in the final six or seven minutes, said the veteran Worthington coach, the Trojans “finally realized we had the advantage inside.”
Sophomore forward Tarren Spartz made several big inside shots for WHS in the second half, finishing with 19 points. She scored 13 of those points in the second half, including a 3-pointer, and was 8-for-10 from 2-point range.
Olivia Hayenga led the Trojans with 25 points. Her smooth moves and twisting layups served her team well throughout. Trojan senior Sophie Wietzema, who had 18 rebounds and four assists in the game, scored 14 points. Stephie Bauman and Laci Boomgarden both had 9 points, all on 3-pointers.
Bauman also had 10 assists.
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It was Senior Night in Worthington, and so Lindner put little-used senior forward Karen Dykstra in the game to start. She scored a layup off the tip and had four of the team’s first seven points.
Worthington, which improved its record to 13-4, beat Jackson County Central 80-57 earlier this season. With the loss in the much-closer rematch, the Huskies fell to 5-11.
JCC 32 80
Worthington 50 89
JACKSON COUNTY CENTRAL (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) -- Farmer 5-3-1-22, Voss 4-9-2-32, Farmer 2-2-1-11, G.Brinkman 0-1-3-5, Wenzel 1-2-0-8, A.Brinkman 0-1-0-2, Cother 0-0-0-0. Totals 11-18-7-80.
WORTHINGTON (3FG-2FG-FT-TP) -- Scheitel-Taylor 0-2-1-5, Bauman 3-0-0-9, Hayenga 1-7-8-25, Spartz 1-8-0-19, Wietzema 1-5-1-14, Boomgarden 3-0-0-9, Weg 0-2-0-4. Dykstra 0-2-0-4. Totals 9-26-10-89.
