Jets come up short against Mustangs

Madelyn Poe

HOPE — After scoring four points in the opening quarter at Hauser Thursday night, New Washington used long range shooting during a big second quarter to take control of the game, defeating the Jets 44-41 in girls basketball.

Hauser led after the first eight minutes, 6-4, but the visiting Mustangs shot their way into the lead in the second period, hitting five 3-pointers and outscoring the Jets 19-9 to take an eight point lead into halftime at 23-15. Back to back triples from the Mustangs’ Grace Ellison and Haylie Spear keyed a spurt that saw New Washington take a 13-7 lead. After Hauser had cut the lead back to two, New Washington went on a 10-2 run to finish out the first half.

A key injury for Hauser did not help matters. 29 seconds into the game, the Jets’ Kyliegh Parrott lay on the court in pain with an apparent ankle injury. She was unable to return in the first half for the Jets, leaving them without a key starter.

“When Kyliegh tweaked her ankle and stayed down, I knew she was hurt. She’s a very tough kid. It hurt our chemistry offensively for sure, so we had to do some different things,” Hauser coach Chad Evans said.

The Mustangs extended the lead to ten early in the second half, as Kaidin James scored a bucket to up New Washington’s lead to 25-15. A Norah Berkenstock 3 cut the Mustangs’ lead to seven. Following a New Washington basket, a knee injury to one of the referees paused play for close to ten minutes.

It appeared that Hauser used this time to regroup, as back to back 3s by Madelyn Poe and Parrott cut the deficit to one with two minutes remaining in the period. New Washington answered with a triple of its own to regain a four-point cushion.

A Gabby Johns’ three-point play at the end of the period brought the Jets to within three at 34-31 to begin the final quarter.

The Jets were able to cut the Mustangs’ lead to one on two separate occasions in the second half, but they could never get over the hump. New Washington had an answer when it needed one.

“We talk in practice about getting kills when we need them,” Evans said. “Tonight, we were not able to get those kills when we needed them down the stretch. We also missed about six or seven point- blank shots that we should hit, so that hurt us as well.”

One of the keys for Hauser was stopping New Washington’s leading scorer James. After holding her to five points in the first half, she exploded for 16 in the second half to end the game with 21 points.

“We knew if we could stop her we would have a chance. But she ended up with 21 points so we could have done better guarding her,” Evans said.

Although Parrott was able to come back in the second half, she was not 100%. She played in the post due to her lack of mobility and played an admirable game, scoring seven points. Leading the way for the Jets was Poe with 16 points and Johns with 13.

“It was a tale of two halves,” Evans said. “We outscored them by five in the second half, but it wasn’t enough tonight.”