It was an important road trip for Winfield-Mt. Union basketball Friday that ended in a pair of wins over the Ravens at Hillcrest Union in Kalona. The Lady Wolves rolled to a wire-to-wire 60-15 victory. They opened the game on an 18-2 run that spanned the entire first quarter and led 39-4 at half, ultimately stretching the advantage to 45 by the end of the contest. The Lady Wolves outrebounded the Ravens by 16 and forced 23 turnovers while only committing 11. After the game head coach Mitch Wachs talked about the importance of his team’s defense feeding the offense and rebounding and turnovers played in the game story. “For us if we are locked down playing defense it’s so important for us to finish that possession with a rebound. We emphasize that all the time, ‘what good does it to do play 15 seconds of defense if you are going to give them another chance with a rebound?’ and I thought we controlled the defensive boards really well. We also caused turnovers. Those things allowed us to get out and get some easy buckets.”
Nine Wolves scored in the game led by a duo with double doubles as Bradie Buffington scored 14 points with 11 rebounds, Melina Oepping had 11 points and 10 rebounds. The Ravens were led by Esther Hughes 10 points. With the win, the Wolves improve to 11-2 overall and keep pace one game behind Mediapolis for the conference lead at 8-1. Hillcrest falls to 1-10 and 0-7 respectively.
The boys contest had a big prize on the line, a share of first place in the Superconference North, and it was the Wolves that stayed atop the standings with 42-33 win. The first run of the game belonged to Hillcrest at 14-4 in the initial quarter. They would lead 19-8 midway through the second. Winfield-Mt. Union found traction with four minutes in the half, pouring in 11 straight and getting within 21-19 at intermission. The Wolves sprint continued out of the locker room at 15-2 and ultimately 26-7 as they held the Ravens without a field goal for a six and a half minute stretch of the third period. The Ravens would put together a small rally in the fourth, scoring six straight to get it back to single digits but WMU held them off to secure the win and first place. After the game, Winfield-Mt. Union head coach Klay Edwards talked about how big the win was and highlighted his players individual efforts. “We worked on getting Cam (Buffington) involved. He’s just so physical and athletic. I wouldn’t want to guard him! Abram (Edwards) was really good defensively and made it difficult on them with his length. All of our guards had a great night also. We went into half with only two turnovers and did a good job taking care of the ball. That’s a key to winning these kinds of games. Our fans travel well, usually I can’t hear anything going on when I’m playing or coaching but tonight I could hear them chanting defense at the end of the game. They always give us such great support.”
Winfield-Mt. Union won the battle on the glass by eight and turnovers were even with each team committing nine. Cam Buffington played on another level putting up a game high 24 points, 13 rebounds and hammering in two dunks. Luke Schrock led Hillcrest with 16 points. WMU stays unbeaten in conference at 8-0 and improves to 9-1 overall. The Ravens see their seven game winning streak snapped as they fall to 7-2 and 6-2 in the league.