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Hancock High School Athletics

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WAHOO GIRLS BB SEEING BENEFITS

The Wahoo girls basketball team's difficult schedule carries risk and reward. There’s always the dilemma of losses affecting confidence. That’s something the Class C-1 No. 7 Warriors faced during a three-game losing streak just after Christmas when they fell to Class C-1 No. 1 Lincoln Christian and Class B No. 2 Elkhorn South in the Wahoo Holiday Tournament and Class C-2 No. 2 Guardian Angels Central Catholic on the road three days later. But the tough competition can pay off later, as Wahoo discovered in the Capitol Conference Tournament last week. After defeating Ashland-Greenwood and Raymond Central in the first two rounds, the Warriors avenged an earlier loss to Class B No. 7 Platteview with a 43-35 win in the finals Saturday on the Trojans’ home court. “We had a tough stretch there, and those three losses mentally and physically took a toll,” said Wahoo coach Linda Walker, whose Warriors (13-7) have won nine of their last 11 games, the only losses during that stretch coming to Platteview and Class C-1 No. 2 Norfolk Catholic. “We had some team meetings after that and the girls pulled it together,” the coach said. “We tried to stress the positive things we were doing in those games while at the same time cleaning up some areas we needed to improve on.” The scheduling strategy outside the conference is two-fold for the Warriors. First, they try to play as many Class B teams as possible. Eight games against the larger schools are on the schedule, including a road trip to No. 8 Gretna on Tuesday. Second, Walker looks to the strong basketball tradition of northeast Nebraska, a natural, since the former all-stater played her high school basketball at Battle Creek for her father, Nebraska High School Hall of Fame coach Bob Schnitzler. In addition to GACC and Norfolk Catholic, Wahoo has also played two-time defending Class C-1 champion and No. 3 Pierce and a Wayne team that’s been ranked most of the season in Class C-1. Wahoo split those games, losing to Pierce but edging Wayne. The Warriors finish the regular season against crosstown rival Bishop Neumann, ranked No. 6 in Class C-1. “We were fortunate those teams had openings and we were able to pick them up,” Walker said. “We try to challenge our girls as much as possible, because the only way to get better is to play the good teams.” Wahoo features five seniors and one of the tallest overall lineups in Class C-1. Six-foot-2 Cheyenne Pearce leads the team in scoring (14.8 points per game) and is second in rebounding (7.6). A pair of 6-foot seniors, Gabby Shannon and Katie Reeves, average 9.3 and 8.7 points, respectively, but also bring other skills to the table. Shannon leads the Warriors in assists (3.6), while Reeves tops the team in rebounding (8.7) and steals (2.1). Pearce and Shannon scored 10 points apiece in the win against Platteview. Five-foot-4 Bailey Brigham and 5-6 Kelsey Tomjack start at guard and provide critical ballhandling and outside shooting. In the win against Platteview, Tomjack hit a three-pointer that broke a tie in the fourth quarter and put Wahoo ahead to stay. “We have some tall girls, but they’re athletic and they run the floor well,” Walker said. “The biggest improvement we’ve made since the beginning of the season is on defense. We were just allowing too many points. Because we’re playing better defense, we don’t feel as much pressure if we’re not shooting well and the ball is not going in the hoop.”

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