For anyone who doubts the resolve of the 2009-10 Wellington Crusader girls basketball team, let's just digest this score:
Wellington 48 Rose Hill 45
The Crusaders knocked out the defending sub-state champion Rockets in dramatic fashion Thursday night of the Maize South Sub-state semifinals.
And Wellington did it in the most unlikely of places, the free throw line and winning the battle inside.
The Crusaders, queens of the three-point line all season, made just two past the trey line, Thursday — instead finding success elsewhere.
Wellington would then hit 18 free throws on 27 attempts. In the fourth quarter, Wellington would go 12 of 18 from the line, and 8 of 10 in the final minute. Rose Hill could never recapture the lead after sending the Dukes to the line five times in the final 60 seconds.
And where did Wellington get the bulk of its charity stripe success? Well, from freshman Savannah Cornejo, of course. She would knock down 5 of 6 free throws down the stretch.
"Savannah had what freshmen basketball players are not supposed to have — ice in her veins," said Kevin Hackerott, Wellington head girls basketball coach.
When asked what was her key to making all those free throws, Cornejo just shrugged and said:
"I don't know. I guess I just practiced."
Wellington (13-9) has advanced to the sub-state championship for the first time since 1996, and will battle Circle, a 50-46 winner over Mulvane in the other semifinal game. The sub-state championship is scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. at Maize South. Don't miss it!
For the Crusaders, it was also redemption. Rose Hill was the lone league team Wellington never beat this year. Rose Hill won convincingly in the two regular season games.
But Thursday, from the onset, this game looked to be different.
Wellington opened with a 7-2 lead and held it throughout the first quarter, leading 13-12 after the first quarter without committing a turnover.
In Wellington's lone bad quarter, Rose Hill went on a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the second, and eventually opened up a 21-12 lead. But Wellington would rally late, getting key free throws, and trailing 25-20 at the half.
"I thought that was key stretch for us," Hackerott said. "To be able to cut the deficit in half like that really took Rose Hill out of its rhythm. I think that really helped put us over the top in the second half."
Rose Hill never did dominate Wellington thereafter. Although, the Rockets were leading 29-22, they weren't making the shots. Then Wellington's Dani Anderson hit a three and free throw to narrow the margin to three. Erianne Adams would hit a layup.
Then Taylor Leatherwood, who had an outstanding game with six points and getting big rebounds, would nail one before quarter's end. Wellington went into the fourth leading 30-29.
For the next six minutes, this game see-sawed back and fourth. Sarah Amrein kept Rose Hill at bay by making two monstrous steals in that stretch.
"We decided to adjust our post defense from the previous two games we played them," Hackerott said. "That's why Sarah was having so much success getting the steals."
Wellington took the lead for good when Anderson hit two free throws at the 1:43 mark, making it 40-39 Dukes. Then Rose Hill missed two free throws and threw up an air ball.
At the one minute mark, down by one, the Rockets pressed and immediately fouled Cornejo on the inbounds.
Cornejo, who played sparingly on the varsity during the regular season, was in the game late because Adams was under the weather. So the Rose Hill philosophy was to foul the freshman hoping she would miss.
Cornejo did not, she sunk two free throws to build the lead to three.
Then when Rose Hill hit two free throws on the other end, Cornejo was again fouled. She would hit 1 of 2. Rose Hill missed another free throw and a foul thereafter sent Cornejo to the line a third consecutive time. She sunk them both, going 5 of 6 in the span of 16.6 seconds.
Anderson then hit 1 of 2 on the next possession and Adams sealed the deal with two free throws with 17.1 seconds to play giving Wellington a six-point lead.
Rose Hill would hit a trey with 4.5 seconds left to narrow the margin to three, but Anderson just kept the ball out of bounds and let the clock run out for the win.
For the game, Wellington out-rebounded Rose Hill 26-23 and won the turnover battle 17-13.
Anderson led Wellington with 15, Amrein followed with 10. Whitney Bates had 23 for Rose Hill. Wellington was very effective in containing Kelsey Webber, who had just 5 points and fouled out with about 2 minutes to play.
Wellington 48 Rose Hill 45
Wellington 13 7 10 18 — 48
Rose Hill 12 13 4 16 — 45
Wellington: S. Cornejo 0 6-8 6. A. Whaley 3 0-2 6. S. Amrein 4 2-4 10. E. Adams 1 2-3 4. C. Wiley 0 2-2 2. T. Leatherwood 3 0-0 6. Anderson 2 (2) 6-8 15. Total: 13 (2) 18-27 48. Rose Hill: B. Burnett 1 (2) 1-4 9. W. Bates 5 (1) 10-12 23. K. Webber 1 (2) 5. C. Rash 1 0-1 2. K. Bonar 2 0-0 4. Lucas 1 0-2 2. Total: 11 (4) 11-19 45.
