Washburn second to TL-M-M in tournament
By Adam Thomas, BHG News Service
Going into last weekend’s McLean County Tournament, the returning champion Washburn Cardinals were looking to repeat as the first place team by the time the smoke cleared on Saturday night. It wouldn’t turn out that way, but ohhh it was close. Washburn outclassed their first two opponents, running through Mandaree 80-25 and then Underwood 45-16. But a stalwart TL-M-M Trojan team battled with them to the very end, pulling ahead at the last moment and forcing a full court buzzer-beating shot that missed its mark, resulting in a runner up placement for the Cardinals, 53-54. Washburn didn’t mess around in their first round match-up against the Mandaree Warriors. They immediately went to work and completely picked apart the Warriors on both sides of the ball. The game quickly devolved into a no-contest matchup that allowed the Washburn coaching staff to get their starting players an easy warm-up on the first day of the tournament and then get their bench into the game for some real game varsity experience. Spanky Clayton outscored the entire Mandaree team with 35 points and also added in 11 steals. Heidi Scheetz came off the bench and gave the Cardinals 14 points, good enough for the second highest scorer in the game. Leading by 36 points at half-time, the Cardinals eventually closed out the game 80-25 and moved on to face the Underwood Comets in the second round.
