Winchester’s Maddie Lawrence (R) guards Union County’s Tara Williams during the Class 2A sectional at Northeastern on Feb. 2.
FOUNTAIN CITY, Ind. – The Winchester girls basketball team survived a first-half scare from Union County on Friday as the fourth-ranked Golden Falcons went on to a 55-25 victory to reach the finale of the Class 2A Northeastern Sectional.
“That’s a tough match-up for us,” Winchester Head Coach Holly Gutierrez said. “We could not hit in the first half.”
Winchester (22-2) meets Lincoln (12-11) on Saturday in the championship contest at 7:30 p.m.
The Patriots led 10-4 after the first quarter.
“We felt like we had to get off to a good start,” Union County Head Coach Scott Gray said. “They came out an executed our game plan. We forced Winchester to take some outside shots and they missed them.”
The Golden Falcons were able to finish the first half on top 23-19.
“Winchester is who they are and their length bothered us,” Gray said. “We were in the game at halftime.”
That changed in the third period as Winchester started the frame with 12 straight points.
“They went triangle and two against us and we got three straight good looks, which could have changed it,” Gray said. “We didn’t hit any of them and then it just steamrolled.”
The third quarter ended with with Winchester in front 41-21.
“We finally got smart and taking the ball to the hole like we need to and getting to the free throw line, which is when we started to climb out of that hole,” Gutierrez said. “At halftime, we talked about things as we cam out and played much better.”
“They never panicked,” Gutierrez continued. “That was a good opportunity for us with it being a close game to kind of keep our mental toughness and sustain that. That says a lot about where they are. This time last year, we would have been panicking.”
Maddie Lawrence led Winchester with 16 points and eight rebounds.
Kira Robinson added 12 points and six rebounds, while Shelby Miller tossed in 11 points and had six rebounds.
Hannah Graft and Becca Chamberlin both finished with eight points.
For the Patriots (10-13), Madison Gray led the way with nine points and seven rebounds.
Tara Williiams had eight points.
“I thought they did a great job all year,” Gray said of his squad. “We battled through a ton of injuries.”
“We’ve got tough kids and for us to get 10 wins, we felt good about the progress we made,” he added.