It was a foul way for Lindsay Holy Family to relinquish its Class D2 girls basketball crown.
Literally.
Holy Family was defeated 53-44 by Wynot in the semi-finals of the 2011 Nebraska Girls State Basketball Championships tournament Friday in a game that lasted over two hours, with 56 fouls whistled and 75 free throws attempted.
The Lady Bulldogs, already shorthanded with Stacey Beller missing the tournament due to injury, saw key starters Andrea Weeder and Breanna Korus suffer foul difficulty in the first half and Weeder foul out of the contest after playing less than two minutes in the second half.
It was a hurdle Holy Family could not overcome against a tough Wynot squad that lost to the Bulldogs in the 2010 title game and continued on to defeat Hay Springs for the 2011 D2 championship.
Holy Family opened its bid to repeat Thursday with a typical stellar defensive effort that thwarted Mead 40-20.
After holding a 12-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, Holy Family blanked the Raiders in the second period and limited Mead to two third-quarter points while building an imposing 32-10 advantage.
Wynot, seeded #3 entering the 2001 state tournament, took advantage of Lindsay Holy Family foul trouble at several key junctures in Friday’s Class D2 semi-final contest at Pershing Auditorium and scored a 53-44 victory over the #2 seeded Bulldogs.
The game began as if it would be a classic nip-and-tuck dogfight between teams that squared off in the 2010 championship game, as neither team was able to lead by more than three points through most of the opening half.
Wynot was able to generate the first big momentum swing, putting together a 6-0 run to end the half when Weeder and Korus were forced to the bench with their third fouls. Then, with Weeder picking up her fourth just 33 seconds into the third period, the Blue Devils expanded their 21-16 halftime lead to 28-18, putting Holy Family in catch-up mode. The defending champs continued to battle. Holy Family cut the lead to six, 39-33, early in the fourth quarter, but Weeder was whistled for her fifth foul with just 1:27 expired in the period and Wynot pushed the lead back to double digits over the next three minutes.
The Bulldogs again whittled the deficit to six, 47-41, with just under a minute to play, but it was back to the foul line for the Blue Devils, who knocked down 6-of-8 free throws to secure the victory.
Holy Family rebounded Saturday to defeat Brady 53-39 in the D2 consolation game. The Bulldogs controlled play from the outset, racing to a 30-14 halftime lead.
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