WAUSA – The Wausa girls basketball team fell to 1-6 heading into the Christmas break for the 2023-24 season following a tough loss to Niobrara/Verdigre on Dec. 18.
The Lady Vikings fell 74-31 as they were down 17-10 after the first quarter and saw their opponent pull away each quarter before the 5-3 Lady Cougars finished on a 22-1 run in the final eight minutes.
Niobrara/Verdigre was led by Josilyn Miller’s 28-point, eight-steal, seven-rebound and five-assist performance.
“They have one of the best players in northeast Nebraska and she had an amazing game,” Wausa head coach Shane Anderson said. “I thought we started the game really well; we had the lead for a good portion of the first quarter and were doing a good job of executing offensively.
“Defensively, we were getting them to miss shots, but we were not rebounding as well as we could have and their first nine points came off of second- or even third-chance opportunities,” he said.
“As the game went on, our offensive woes that we have had all year continued to plague us,” he said. “We had stretches where we turned the ball over, and then just missed some pretty good looks and didn’t shoot well.”
Anderson noted the Lady Vikings surrendered 36 points off of their own turnovers.
“That has to be our number one focus going into break,” he said.
Wausa was led by sophomore Taylor Dawson (21 points) and junior Oliva Barta (six points, five rebounds).
“I feel like the first half of that game, we were playing very well, especially the first quarter, but then some people’s shots weren’t going in and they were getting down on themselves,” Barta said. “Then they started to bring the attitude down. So then everybody started getting down, and then we ended up losing by quite a bit.
“Niobrara is one of the better teams that we play and I think they have a shot of going to state if they work hard enough,” she said. “We have a lot of young girls and with Hadley (Vanness) gone, I feel like it is a lot of work for the younger girls – the freshmen – to step up and take action sometimes.”
Anderson said despite the rough start, he believes the Lady Vikings have the pieces in place, and whether Vanness, a senior, can return from injury, things could click.
“If the game continues to slow down for us and we can get a few games under our belt with less than 20 turnovers and figure out how that looks, we are going to be fine,” Anderson said. “Last year, we basically went into Christmas in the same spot and got things turned around. I believe that can happen again if we rebound and lessen our turnovers.”
He added free-throw shooting needs to improve as well, and if they can win two of those three areas nightly, Wausa’s chances to win will accelerate.
Anderson also noted the play of Dawson, Vanness and senior Sienna West.
“In her absence, freshmen Reagan Gillilan and Elle Brazel have stepped up,” Anderson said. “Olivia has also gotten things going offensively since Hadley has been out; that is a bonus, but we really need her presence to be felt on defense.
“Our two forwards, (sophomore) Avery Stevens and (junior) Mackenzie Vanness, both do a pretty good job on defense,” he said. “Avery is a good athlete and Mack is a great communicator and keeps us organized; both of them need to find a way to get into the scoring column more consistently, especially through rebounding.”
It sounds like Santa Claus may have stuffed Wausa’s stocking with hope.
“I feel like once we come back from Christmas break – as people start working harder – get our goals set, then we can get those goals to win more,” Barta said. “Once we get down on ourselves, we need to work harder. Then we’ll start kicking it into gear.”
