CHS girls fall to fourth-ranked Wamego

Playing their final home game of the season, the Concordia Panthers fell 49-19 to fourth-ranked Wamego in a North Central Kansas League matchup Friday night.
Wamego, coming off just its second loss of the season, to Clay Center last Tuesday night, used smothering full-court pressure defense to get out to a 25-0 lead in the game.
Concordia was unable to mount a charge in the final two and a half quarters.
The Panthers, now 4-15 overall and 1-8 in league play, will wrap up the regular season with a road game at Clay Center on Tuesday night.
“One thing I am trying to instill in our kids is that it doesn’t matter what our record is if we keep fighting and we just keep grinding. As long as you are putting effort in, anything can happen,” Concordia coach Carly Bloomfield said.
Using that full-court pressure, Wamego scored its first 10 points on layups.
“Their man-to-man press, we could not handle the pressure,” Bloomfield said.
Wamego, 17-2 overall and 8-1 in the league, led the game 17-0 after one quarter of play.
The Red Raiders then scored the first eight points of the second period to up the lead to 25-0.
Concordia’s first two points of the game came on a pair of free throws with 3:42 remaining in the first half.
Wamego was limited to just three points over the final 4:44 of the half, but led 28-2.
Getting baskets by Bartlett and Carlie Carlgren, the Panthers matched Wamego’s four points in the first three minutes of the second half.
Wamego used a 13-2 spurt to go up 45-8.
A follow by Taylor McDaniel left the Panthers trailing 45-10 heading into the final period.
Concordia then scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter that included a pair of free throws by senior Rheagan Bethune.
Those were the first varsity points for Bethune, who missed much of the season with an injury.
“I was just tickled to death that Rheagan got to play and she scored two points. That made my night,” Bloomfield said. “I know that was important to her. At this point it wasn’t about winning and losing.”
Carlgren would score six of her team-high eight points as Concordia outscored Wamego 9-4 in the fourth quarter.
Paige Donnelly led Wamego with 15 points and Ashten Pierson added 12 points.

WAMEGO (49)
Donnelly 5-4-4 15, Gallagher 1-0-2 2, Pierson 5-1-2 12, Alderson 4-0-1 8, Meinhardt 2-0-4 4, Kueker 0-1-0 1, Hoobler 2-0-1 4, Springer 1-0-0 2. Totals: 20-6-14 49.
CONCORDIA (19)
Parker 0-0-1 0, DeLeon 0-0-3 0, Flesher 1-0-1 2, Carlgren 4-0-2 8, Bartlett 1-3-1 5, Bethune 0-2-0 2, McDaniel 1-0-1 2. Totals: 7-5-10 19.