The Lady Hornets hosted North Fond du Lac’s Lady Orioles during their Regional Quarterfinal on Feb. 23. Wautoma was able to lead the game in the first half, but in a nail-biting fight to the end North Fond du Lac came out on top with a 52-50 win.
Sophomore Montana Groskreutz started the game off with a 3-pointer for the Lady Hornets. From there Lady Hornets continued bringing the ball back to their side, with three 3-pointers from Alayna Panich and one 3 from Bri Buechner helping to secure a 19-5 lead within the first quarter of the game. Wautoma ended the first half with a 24-15 lead.
Ava Stahl was the first to score in the second half with 2 points. A 3 from Fond du Lac’s side of the court started their comeback. With the time ticking down to 11:27 on the board Fond du Lac was able to close the gap to only 4 points. The Lady Orioles were able to score a 1-point lead with 9:46 on the clock, which Stahl countered with 2 free throw points. The ball was on both sides on the court for some time, with the teams tying up the game at 37 then at 39 points.
Madalyn Woyak was able to get the Lady Hornets back in the lead with 2 points, followed by an additional 2 from Stahl. Wautoma kept up their energy while having a 1 point advantage over their opponents. Their efforts were soon countered by a 3-pointer on Fond du Lac’s side of the court. With the lead going in favor of the Lady Orioles with only a few minutes left in the game, Wautoma struggled to score anymore points. With only seconds left in the game the team was down 47 to 52. In a final attempt to score, Stahl shot an incredible 3-pointer from almost halfway up-court with an eighth of a second in the game. The buzzer sounded the fans still cheering loud for their team, despite a heart-breaking loss.
Ava Stahl and Alayna Panich both topped the scoreboards for the Regional Quarterfinal with 15 points each. Bri Buechner ended up with 9 points, Montana Groskreutz 5, Madylyn Woyak 4, and Jaylyn Piechowski 2.
The team kept a positive outlook despite their loss, with the Lady Hornets celebrating a 14-win season.
