The Lone Tree Lions and Winfield-Mt. Union Wolves split a SEISC North doubleheader Friday night at the Tree House in Lone Tree. In the girls contest, the Lady Lions pummeled the Lady Wolves 68-18, and in the boys contest, a tight battle went the way of WMU 49-41.

Right from the opening tip, it was clear the Lone Tree girls learned from their back-to-back losses suffered coming into the contest, as their defense brought early pressure that caused nine unofficial first quarter turnovers by the Lady Wolves. On the scoreboard, meanwhile, it was a 17-6 lead for Lone Tree after the first frame. Their best offensive outputs came in the second and third quarters though, scoring 21 and 24 total points in each, respectively. The defense remained stellar, too, only giving up two points combined between quarters two and three. This put Lone Tree in firm control headed into the final frame, and earned their starters an early night en route to the massive victory.

For the victorious Lady Lions, Finley Jacque had her best scoring output of the season with 21 points, followed by Vivian Zaruba’s 14 and Cate Sexton’s 11. Winfield was led by Kynlee Buffington’s nine. Unofficially, Lone Tree outrebounded WMU 38-26, and had 25 fewer turnovers.

The boys game was expected to be much closer than the final score of the girls game, and that was indeed the case. Much like Thursday night’s game with Keota, Lone Tree raced out to an early lead. Unfortunately, also much like Thursday night, the Lions could not manage to hold onto that lead. WMU quickly chipped away at the gap once it reached 10 to tie the ballgame at 12 following the first quarter. Both sides traded threes in the second quarter, leading to a 20-18 Lion lead at the half. The Wolves made their hay in the third period, as they outrebounded Lone Tree 12-4, and netted nine points on the Lions to take a 36-29 advantage into the final eight minutes. Lone Tree would get back within a possession, but could not retake the lead.

Out of their seven total players that scored at least a point, WMU was led by Lane Genkinger’s 13 and Nicholas Sparrow’s 12. Genkinger made seven of his eight free throws in the second half, allowing the Wolves to keep Lone Tree at arm’s length. The Lions saw Reece Holbrook and Emmett Burke tie for the top of their scoring charts at 12 apiece. Unofficially, WMU outrebounded Lone Tree 40-23, and had five fewer turnovers.

Lone Tree girls Head Coach Ryan Shelman joined KCII Sports on the postgame show to talk about his team’s impressive victory. “The girls did a good job of buying in the last two days. It’s tough coming off back-to-back losses, and games that we were in and just couldn’t pull through,” Shelman said. “Tonight was just a good win. A good confidence builder for our program and our girls. It’s probably what we needed tonight.”

WMU boys Head Coach Klay Edwards also joined KCII Sports on the postgame show to speak on his team’s win. “For the kids to execute down the stretch in these last two games I think says a lot. We’ve kind of struggled offensively getting out of the gate in both of these games, and they just stick with it and keep plugging away,” Edwards said.

The Lone Tree girls advance to 3-2 overall, and 1-2 in conference play, while the WMU boys remain unbeaten through two games at 2-0, and 2-0 in the SEISC. The WMU girls drop to 2-2 overall, and 1-2 in the Superconference, while the Lone Tree boys fall to 1-2 overall, and 1-1 in conference play. The Area Game of the Week will pack up and head to Columbus Junction for a Tuesday night doubleheader between Highland and Columbus.