Defending champ Goodland gets by Frontenac for 37th straight win

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (Catch it Kansas) - The defending Class 3A Champions, the Goodland Cowgirls, survived a scare to defeat the Frontenac Lady Raiders 53-48 and advanced to the semifinals on Friday.

The undefeated second-seed Cowgirls quickly built a lead in the game to end the first quarter 15-3. Frontenac’s only points came from behind the free-throw line.

At the 4:20 to-go mark in the second quarter, Goodland extended the lead to 21 points. They would make their last field goal of the quarter with under three minutes to go.

At the same time, Frontenac started to chip away at the Cowgirl advantage. Hattie Pyle made two three-pointers in the quarter to help her team to score 15 points. Goodland led 27-18 at halftime.

The Lady Raider defense held Goodland to only eight points in the third quarter. They narrowed the Cowgirl lead to five points at 5:15 remaining. Two minutes later, Goodland led by a single point. The Cowgirls extended the lead to 35-32 at the end of the quarter.

Frontenac would continue to narrow the lead back to one point and Goodland would extend it back to between two and three points for most of the fourth quarter.

With 1:55 to go in the game, Frontenac tied the game at 46 all with a Hattie Pyle three-pointer. Telexa Weeter would make two free throws to put Goodland back ahead ten seconds later.

Goodland was able to hold off Frontenac in the final minutes of the game by making free throws. In the fourth quarter, they made 10 of 12 free-throw attempts. For the game, they made 13 of 20 from behind the free-throw line.

Olivia Lehman made a layup with six seconds to go to make the score 53-48 and secure the win for the Cowgirls.

“Sometimes the kiss of death is getting up like that early,” said Goodland Head Coach Bill Biermann. “If you can’t close out a good team like Frontenac, fighters, a couple of really good players, a good team, and well-coached. And they start to come back. You start to tighten up and momentum swings. It can be tough to stem the tide a little. I guess the positive of that is at some point in time we did enough and made enough plays down the stretch to win it. And didn’t fold. It’s a quality sign of a championship team.”

Telexa Weeter led all scorers with 20 points. She made six field goals, one three-pointer, and seven of eight free throws. Olivia Lehman added 10 points with four field goals and two free throws.

Hattie Pyle led all scorers for Frontenac with 14 points.

The Frontenac Lady Raiders end their season with a 17-7 record.

Goodland advances to the 6:00 PM semifinal game on Friday, March 10th against the 23-1 three-seed, Silver Lake.