The Mitchell High School girls basketball team ended up a few plays short of picking up its first win of the season Tuesday.
Thunder Basin, of Gillette, Wyoming, led from wire-to-wire and picked up a victory over the Kernels 61-45 in the Hoop City Classic at the Corn Palace.
Mitchell coach Cole Knippling said the Kernels saw the difference in those possessions being decided by being in the correct place at the right time.
“We’re definitely competing,” Knippling said. “There’s a few plays where we just needed to be a half-second quicker and they were really able to get a number of baskets on plays like that. In the second half, we gave up some plays where we weren’t rotating like we needed to and we’re running out to them as they’re driving in, and they got four or five layups on those and that’s the difference in the ball game.”
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The Bolts (5-2) led throughout the first half, seeing a 14-9 first quarter lead swell to 10 on two occasions in the second quarter, including with 3:15 remaining until halftime when Cena Carlson’s bucket put Thunder Basin up 24-14. But a late push from Mitchell that included a Lauren Van Overschelde 3-pointer, three points from Sawyer Stoebner and a pair of free throws from Sarah Sebert allowed Mitchell to get within four points late in the half before the intermission margin was set at 28-22.
Stoebner finished with 15 points and Van Overschelde, a freshman, had 12 points for the Kernels.
“We really saw them both play with a lot of confidence, which was fun to see,” Knippling said.
Mitchell (0-4) returns to the Corn Palace floor for another Hoop City Classic with a Gillette, Wyoming foe, hosting Campbell County at 3 p.m. The Camels lost to Bridgewater-Emery in Tuesday’s opening game, 49-32.
“We can’t be feeling sorry for ourselves and we’ve got to get right back to it on (Wednesday). There’s a lot for us to clean up but we’re not that far away and we’ve got to keep believing that we’re on the right track.”
