FOUNTAIN CITY, Ind. – The Winchester girls basketball team advanced to championship game in the Class 2A sectional at Northeastern as the Golden Falcons defeated Lincoln 67-60 on Friday night.
Winchester (19-5) faces the host Knights (4-18) on Saturday at 8 p.m. Northeastern beat Union County 46-32 in Friday’s opener to advance to the finale.
“We’ve got to get ready and we’ve got to be focused,” Winchester coach Holly Gutierrez said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the past. It’s 0-0 and they can knock us off.”
The second contest of the night was a battle from the start as Winchester led 16-9 after one, but Lincoln answered to go on top 31-29 at the intermission.
“Everybody on both teams stepped up and made big plays,” Gutierrez said. “It’s tournament time and that’s when things happen.”
With the scored tied 42-42 after three, the Golden Falcons needed a spark heading into the final period.
Shelby Miller provided the boost for Winchester as she scored all nine of her points in the fourth quarter.
“She was huge,” Gutierrez said. “She was the spark that we needed to get us rolling.”
Hannah Graft gave Winchester the lead for good at 45-42 with a 3-pointer at the 6:59 mark.
From that point, the Golden Falcons were able to gain an edge thanks to Miller and Liz Pegg, who had eight of her game-high 19 points in the final stanza.
Maddie Lawrence tossed in 14 points for Winchester as teammate Kira Robinson had 11. Graft finished with nine. Robinson and Graft both grabbed eight rebounds.
For Lincoln, Emmie Pugh led the way with 17 points. Allie Owens tossed in 16 and Kerrigan Neff had 14. Neff and and Kylei Klein both had seven rebounds.
Box Score
LINCOLN (19-4) – Allie Owens 6 0-0 16, Laynie Russell 2 0-0 6, Emmie Pugh 6 3-3 17, Kerrigan Neff 6 1-3 14, Kylei Klein 1 2-4 4, Olivia Davis 0 0-0 0, Hannah Hall 1 0-0 3, Lauren Weston 0 0-0 0, Brianna Sparks 0 0-0 0. Team – 22 6-10 60.
WINCHESTER (19-5) – Maddie Lawrence 3 7-11 14, Kelly Graft 1 0-0 2, Liz Pegg 6 5-6 19, Hannah Graft 3 1-3 9, Kira Robinson 4 3-3 11, Shelby Miller 4 0-0 9, Sierrah Love 1 0-0 3, Becca Chamberlin 0 0-0 0. Team – 22 16-23 67.
Lincoln 9 31 42 60
Winchester 16 29 42 67
3-pointers – Lincoln 9 (Owens 4, Russell 2, Pugh 2, Neff, Hall), Winchester 7 (Pegg 2, H. Graft 2, Lawrence, Love, Miller). Rebounds – Lincoln 36 (Neff 7, Klein 7), Winchester 34 (Robinson 8, H. Graft 8). Turnovers – Lincoln 11, Winchester 9. Fouls – Lincoln 20, Winchester 14. Fouled out – None.