By RYAN WALKER
PONETO — The Southern Wells girls’ basketball team ended its season at the hands of Lakeland Christian Friday night in the sectional semifinal.
The Raiders (8-14) won more games this year than they have over the last five but couldn’t shake the Cougars (15-6) and their shooting ability.
“Shots just weren’t falling for us, unfortunately,” Raider head coach Jessica Killingbeck said after the game. “I thought we had good looks at the basket. Our shots just weren’t falling. And then, on the flip side, they were hitting everything. Our kids tried to do everything that they could.”
The biggest concern in Killingbeck’s game preparation was how to stop the Stonebraker sisters — Mattie and Reese. They lead the Cougars in scoring on the season and have been a big part of the winning season they put together.
As expected, the two were trouble for Southern Wells and they split which half they were going to produce in. Reese, a freshman, hit three of her four threes in the third quarter to add to her game-high 18 points. Mattie, a senior and University of St. Francis signee, scored 13 of her 15 in the first half.
The two of them combined for 12 of the 21 made shots for their club and made the Raiders spin in circles trying to stop them.
“They’re tough,” Killingbeck said. “We knew they could shoot the ball … They set screens for each other, and it’s just hard to get through those screens. Our plan was to hedge, but sometimes we got caught on that hedge and couldn’t get out on the shooter quick enough. I mean, they’re good ball players.”
For a quick few minutes, it looked as if the Raiders were going to be a tough out. Ashlie Needler scored the team’s first six points and grabbed just about every rebound there could be in the first four minutes of the game. That quick start forced the head coach of the Cougars, Hannah Schloemer, to use a timeout.
Her team would go cold in that first quarter, 4-14 from the field, but Mattie Stonebraker would gain the first Lakeland Christian lead on a three-pointer with one second remaining on the clock. After that, the lead would continue to grow and never look back.
The loss was a heartbreaker for the team, who wanted to go on upset alert to keep the season alive, especially on its home floor.
Coach Killingbeck, who was emotional after the game, has been talking about her four seniors the entire season on what they’ve meant to the program. The eight wins were the most since the 2017-18 season and also the last sectional title for the Raiders.
She said that she wrote a letter before the game Friday night for each of the four seniors, Avah Miner, Faith Blair, Zoe Needler, and Hailey Duncan. The group has changed the culture and has set the tone for what hard work looks like and how the program should be run.
“I wrote each of them a letter before the game today, and then there’s a lot of them I said, ‘unfortunately, their win-loss record isn’t going to be what people see as the impact on this program, but their impact on the program’s a lot bigger than wins and losses,” she said. “Their impact on the program is how much they’ve cleaned our culture up and how much they’ve showed what it means to be a family and stick together through hard times and adversity. That’s going to take them a long way in life.’”
She added that without those four seniors, the summer workouts wouldn’t have been the same in terms of numbers and intensity. The group led the underclassman to show up and get better to prepare for the season.
The 2022-23 season is the third year in a row her team has gained more wins than the previous year, but what is more important to her is that her players reflect what she’s taught her team over their high school careers.
“She’s (Killingbeck) like my go-to,” senior Avah Miner said after the game. “And I know on and off the court — I can go to her for anything. I haven’t had a connection with anyone else outside of my family that if I’m going through a problem and I have to turn to, I always know that my coach is there and that if I’m having a problem, I can go to her about anything. In a way, she’s like another mom to me.”
Miner also said that she and her senior class teammates are proud of the way that they’ve changed the culture of the program together and that she values what they’ve had.
“Since we started four years ago, I think that our team has grown so much, and the culture of our team and the bond we have,” she said. “So, this team is like a family to me, and they’re like my best friends. It’s going to be really hard not to step on the court with them anymore.”
On the scoresheet, Ashlie Needler finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Zoe Needler added six.
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LAKELAND CHRISTIAN 63,
SOUTHERN WELLS 33
At Southern Wells High School
LAKELAND CHRISTIAN (15-6): Reese Stonebraker 7-13 0-0 18, Mattie Stonebraker 5-18 3-4 16, Hanna Stout 2-6 2-2 7, Katie Reimink 3-6 0-0 7, Madison Wobrock 2-4 0-0 4, Dayton Sibert 1-4 2-2 4, Olivia Stenoish 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 21-52 7-8 63.
SOUTHERN WELLS (8-14): Ashlie Needler 4-7 4-6 12, Zoe Needler 3-6 0-0 6, Kenzie Paxson 2-4 1-4 5, Hailey Duncan 1-5 0-0 3, Faith Blair 1-8 0-0 2, Gracie Reeves 1-1 0-0 2, Breanna Leidig 1-1 0-0 2, Avah Miner 0-7 1-2 1, Collena Reeves 0-3 0-0 0, Karlee Warner 0-1 0-0 0, Caroline Ripperger 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13-56 6-12.
Lakeland Christian 10 18 23 12 –– 63
Southern Wells 8 8 9 8 — 33
Three-point FG: Lakeland Christian 9-20 (R. Stonebraker 4-7, M. Stonebraker 3-8, Stout 1-4, Reimink 1-1), Southern Wells 1-12 (Duncan 1-3, Miner 0-1, Blair 0-5, Reeves 0-2). Rebounds: Lakeland Christian 24 (R. Stonebraker 8, Reimink 6, M. Stonebraker 5, Sibert 3, Stenoish 2), Southern Wells 25 (A. Needler 11, Miner 6, Duncan 2, Z. Needler 1, Blair 1, Paxson 1, Leidig 1, Reeves 1, Warner 1). Turnovers: Lakeland Christian 10, Southern Wells 9. Fouls: Lakeland Christian 10, Southern Wells 11. Fouled Out: None. Technicals: None.
