Ness City has twice beaten the Lacrosse boys this season, a one point victory in the championship of the Trego tournament in December and then a 4 point win in Ness City three days later. But Friday night would belong to the Leopards.
It didn't look that way early. Ness City jumped out to a 8-2 lead on the strength of two quick early threes. But then both teams went cold from the field and after one quarter Ness City lead just 8-4.
Despite it being a cold and wet night in LaCrosse, the pack crowd that showed up was rewarded with a red hot second quarter. After scoring the final two points of the first quarter, the host team out scored the Eagles 16-9 in the second to take a 20-17 lead into the half.
LaCrosse built up a lead as big as nine in the second half, they lead by seven after three. Eagles had a run left in them. With 9.9 seconds left in the game, Kolton Ratliff buried a three to cut the lead down to two points. At the other end Kip Keeley hit one of two free throws, leaving the Ness City 4.4 to tie it up. The got a good look, but the game tying shot rimmed out of the basket. LaCrosse finally pulls out the victory in another thriller over Ness City 41-38.
"Its was good, it was good to finally get a win," said LaCrosse boys coach Rob Holopirek. " Our kids needed it, we played hard and I thought we really deserved this one."
The girls game was also a thriller. Ness City lead by as many as 11 in the game, but LaCrosse slowly chipped away at the lead.
Turning point in the game came with 1:30 in the game, when LaCrosse's Adrian McCall forced the turnover and then got the return pass for the lay in to tie the game. Then with 30 seconds left Katelyn Gable scored a layup to put the Leopards up for good with 30 seconds left. A pair of free throws stretched LaCrosse's leas to four. And Ness got a late bucket to pull within two.
But they couldn't foul fast enough and with .1 seconds left on the clock, LaCrosse missed the free throw and the desperation redirect by Ness was off line. Lady Leopards win 48-46.
