Ponca edges Lady Blue Devils in thriller

WYNOT — The Wynot Lady Blue Devils and the Ponca Lady Indians battled tooth and nail down to the wire on Thursday night at Wynot. Bree Gill would bank in a long 3-pointer with just 9.8 seconds on the clock for the Lady Indians as they stole one from the Lady Devils by a final score of 38-37. Ponca improved their record to 14-2 while Wynot now has a 14-3 record.

The Blue Devils had built a 22-15 halftime lead but the Lady Indians would rally back from the free throw line in the final quarter before Gill’s heroics.

Wynot was led by Shaelee Planer with 10 points and Karley Heimes and Katelyn Heine each hit for nine points to lead the Lady Devils on offense.

For Ponca, they got 12 points from Kaci Day, seven points from Alyssa Crosgrove and six points from Ashley Kingsbury to power their offense.

In the first quarter, Ponca got buckets from Addie McGill, Alyssa Crosgrove and Kaci Day. Wynot countered with seven big points from Shaelee Planer and earned a 12-7 early lead.

Kaci Day would heat up in the second quarter, as she dropped in six points to lead the Lady Indians. Wynot got a 3-pointer by Kaitlyn Heimes and buckets by Shaelee Planer, Noelle Wieseler and Karley Heimes as they maintained a 20-15 lead at halftime.

In a low scoring third quarter, Ponca got field goals from Ashlyn Kingsbury and Kaci Day, and the Lady Blue Devils got a trey by Karley Heimes, as the lead remained five points in favor of Wynot going into the final frame.

In the fourth quarter, Wynot got five more points from Katelyn Heine and some free throws in a see-saw battle. Ponca got five freethrows from Alyssa Crosgrove and a basket plus one from Samantha Ehlers. Wynot took a threepoint lead on a pair of freethrows by Katelyn Heine, but Bree Gill banked in the long range three with nine seconds left to give the Indians the lead. Wynot’s last shot was short and Ponca escaped with the 38-37 win.

There is the possibility that these two teams could meet next week again as they are the number 1 and 2 seeds in the conference tournament.

Ponca 7 8 7 16 —38 Wynot 12 107 8— 37

SCORING Wynot- Shaelee Planer, 10; Katelyn Heine, 9; Karley Heimes, 9; Kaitlyn Heimes, 3; Whitney Hochstein, 2; Noelle Wieseler, 2; Michaela Lange, 2. Ponca- Kaci Day, 12; Alyssa Crosgrove, 7; Ashlyn Kingsbury, 6; Samantha Ehlers, 5; Addie McGill, 3; Bree Gill, 3; Maggie McGill, 2. REBOUNDS Ponca - Ashlyn Kingsbury, 5; Kaci Day,

5. Wynot- Karley Heimes, 5; Whitney Hochstein, 4..