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Girls have to settle for second place at district tournament

For two quarters, the Bulldogs played some of their best basketball of the entire season.

It wasn’t enough, though, to overcome a lackluster first half. The slow start denied the Kearney girls basketball team its first district title in nearly a decade.

Despite falling behind by 16 points in the first half, the Bulldogs gave top-seeded Staley all it wanted before coming up just short, 58-50, in the Class 4 District 15 championship game Friday, Feb. 26, at Staley. The Falcons made it back-to-back district title victories against Kearney in the past two years.

"We dug ourselves too big of a hole," said junior forward Jenni Hartzler, one of two Bulldogs named to the all-district team. "With that deficit, it was just too many points to make up."

Hartzler and her teammates nearly did it, though. On three separate occasions in the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs pulled to within one point, but they never were able to grab the lead.

In fact, Staley led the entire game, from start to finish.

"I felt like if we ever took the lead, that might be enough to give us a psychological edge," Kearney coach Herb Webster said. "I’m sure they felt like the game was over in the first half. I sure would have liked to see what would have happened if we could have gotten ahead."

Staley didn’t let that happen. Down 43-41 midway through the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs had two opportunities to tie or take the lead, but both possessions ended with turnovers. With two minutes left, Kearney found itself back down by eight.

"We dug ourselves too big of a hole," Webster said. "We had too many mistakes, too many turnovers early, especially in a game with this much at stake.

"With that said, I’m proud of what the girls accomplished after the first quarter. It was quite a comeback. Maybe we ran out of gas after coming all the way back."

Most likely, that was exactly the case.

After falling behind 27-11 late in the first half, things definitely looked bleak for the Bulldogs. However, Kearney went on a 14-2 run that bridged the second and third quarters to make a game of it.

Allison Paul closed out the first half with back-to-back 3-pointers. Cassidy Lee started the second half with a 3-pointer of her own, and Kim Breyfogle scored a putback on the next trip to give the Bulldogs 11 consecutive points. When Lee canned another 3 on the following possession, Kearney had pulled within 29-25 less than three minutes into the second half, and it was game on, just like the Falcons expected.

"Herb’s a great coach," Staley coach Melissa Krog-Savaiinaea said. "Any time you coach against him, you know he has every trick up his sleeve. I knew his team wouldn’t make this easy. Even when we got up big early, I had a feeling they would make a run at us sooner or later."

Junior Michaela Brinkley, Kearney’s other all-district award winner, led her team with 17 points. Paul finished with 10 points, and Lee added eight.

Staley’s Brynn Williamson led all scorers with 21 points. Bree Fowler, who missed the game 10 days earlier when Staley pulled out a 46-44 comeback victory against the Bulldogs in the final week of the regular season, chipped in with 14.

"I’m proud of this team and how we fought back," Hartzler said. "But second place is not what we wanted."

Kearney’s season came to a close with a 17-11 record, the team’s most victories in several years. Staley (18-7) earned the right to meet District 16 champion and state-ranked St. Joseph Benton (24-3) in a sectional playoff game that was scheduled for Wednesday, March 3, at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph.

Sports writer Chris Geinosky can be reached at 389-6654 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .