The Columbus Wildcats earned another Southeast Iowa Super Conference victory in girls’ basketball last night, toppling the Pekin Panthers 49-35 on the road. A 7-4 lead after a low-scoring opening quarter was cut down to two points by halftime, but Columbus used a 24-8 run in the third period to pull away and take up a lead they would never let slip below double digits.

Point guard Ariana Vergara continued her brilliant season for the Wildcats with a team-high 16 points scored and also had four rebounds, four assists and four steals. Fellow junior Lily Coil had a similar strong night with 15 points, nine rebounds, five assists and seven steals. Frannie Sosa had five thefts of her own and matched Aracely Garza with nine points scored each for Columbus.

The Wildcat boys were not as fortunate, falling behind 32-6 in the first quarter and ultimately losing to Pekin 67-28. While they are still winless on the season, the Columbus girls are now 4-0 in the Super Conference North and 4-1 overall. Both teams next play Friday against WACO. You can hear the ‘Cats take on the Warriors from Columbus Junction with pregame starting 5:30 Friday night in the KCII Area Game of the Week exclusively streaming on KCIIradio.com.