SECTION 4 GIRLS' BASKETBALL: HOT-SHOOTING WAVERLY ROLLS INTO SECTIONAL SEMIS (24 PHOTOS) (2025-03-01)

By Brian Fees
Valley Sports Report
WAVERLY — It had been two weeks since the Waverly Wolverines had last played a basketball game, but there was no rust on Saturday as they cruised to a 72-35 win over Lansing in the Section IV, Class B quarterfinals.

Waverly jumped out to a 20-4 lead after one quarter and hit 13 threes in the victory.

The Wolverines hadn’t played since they fell to Chenango Forks 64-37 in the STAC playoffs on Feb. 15.

“It was nice to get a game in,” Waverly coach Bob Kelly said. “It’s been a while since we have played and we got off to a good start. I thought our pressure would cause them some problems and we got the start we wanted.”

All season long the Wolverines have been strong on defense, but the shooting has been up-and-down at times. On Saturday the Wolverines shooting was on target from the start as they hit five threes in the opening quarter.

“We shot the ball pretty well,” Kelly said. “It’s nice, hopefully it continues. Because we have had our issues. Thank God our defense has been strong because we’ve had nights where we had trouble getting the ball in the basket, so it was nice to see it go in. And, I think they feed off it when it happens.”

Ten different Waverly players scored in the game and everyone played in the contest.

“These kids show up every day, they are at practice,” Kelly said. “It was good to get them all in. Sometimes it’s tough, but we got them all in today, which was good.”

Addison Westbrook had 24 points to lead the Wolverines. She had four threes in the game, and had 18 first-half points, 10 in the second quarter.

Ryleigh Judson and Kaitlyn Sutton each had nine points on three threes each.

Maci Wheeler had seven for Waverly and Brilynn Belles had six points, with a pair of threes.

Kaylin Twedt, Emma Richards-Randall and Lauryn Welles all had four points for Waverly in the contest. Kendall Rockwell had three points and Makenzie Olmstead finished with two points.

Isabella Wilder had 14 points and Marissa Nolan had 12 for Lansing.

Waverly next plays in the sectional semis at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Waverly against Forks. It will be the fourth time the two teams have played this year. Forks won the past two, the game in the STAC playoffs and 49-47 on Feb. 5. Waverly won the first contest, 53-47 on Jan. 7.

Forks enters the postseason ranked eighth in the state in Class B and Waverly is ranked 20th.

“It will be the fourth time we play them,” Kelly said. “Their (Waverly’s) attitude has been great. Our practices leading up to today’s game have been fantastic. As long as they keep that attitude the way it is anything can happen. We have a challenge ahead of us and we’ll get after it.”
————
PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES.


Print Friendly Version