Balanced scoring night nets Worth County first GRC win

JON DYKSTRA/THE TIMES-TRIBUNE
Worth County senior Rayleigh Smith high-fives senior Rylee Ruckman (11) during pre-game introductions on Tuesday in Rosendale.

ROSENDALE, Mo. — It was a sleepy start at North Andrew for a Worth County girls team that hadn’t played in two weeks, but the Tigers adjusted for a 51-35 victory over the Cardinals for their first conference win of the season on Tuesday.

“I knew that North Andrew could be scrappy,” Worth County coach April Healy said. “It took us a while to adjust to their offense.”

North Andrew (2-9; 0-3 GRC) had its rhythm going at home with back-to-back 3-pointers by Kyra Lassen to take a 16-13 lead in the second quarter. The two teams traded baskets and the Cardinals led 18-15.

The Tigers (8-3; 1-2 GRC) responded to the adversity by playing through junior Kristen Tracy in the high post and taking advantage of the attention she draws. Sophomore Megan Tracy started the run with a layup, Kristen Tracy added a bucket then fed Kambree Briner for a 21-18 lead.

“It definitely took a while to get going with everyone finding their rhythm again and getting going,” Megan Tracy said. “Shots weren’t falling at first, but then we started to get going.”

After a pair of free throws from Cardinal guard Lillian Richardson, Tiger sophomore Audrey Runde had her first points of the night with a 3-pointer and repeated the feat on the next possession for a personal 6-0 run. Runde’s pair of 3-pointers put the Tigers up 27-20 at halftime.

“Her hitting back-to-back threes really helped us to get going and showed us that not everybody’s shot was off,” Megan Tracy said.

Worth County’s defense turned up the pressure in the third quarter and held the Cardinals to just four points. Megan Tracy and Runde had back-to-back scores to extend the lead to 35-24 at the end of the third quarter.

“It was good,” Runde said of defense turning into offense. “We knew that we needed to run because they weren’t getting back as quickly as we were.”

North Andrew cut the lead to 37-28 early in the fourth on a Lassen basket, but the Tigers iced the game with four different players scoring in a 9-0 run where Runde kicked it off with her third triple followed by Briner and both Tracy sisters scoring to make it 46-28.

Worth County was able to get its bench in the game to close it and coast to a 51-35 final score.

Kristen Tracy led the Tigers with 13 points while Megan Tracy had 12 and Runde had 11. Briner was nearly in double figures with nine and Rylee Ruckman had six.

“We’ve got a slew of offenses, and it is just a matter of finding the right mismatches and trying to exploit them,” Healy said. “We did a good job of everyone attacking and finding the open player.”

Lassen and Briley Rainez each had 10 points for North Andrew while Richardson had nine off the bench.

Worth County begins a 5-game regular-season homestand — around next week’s Stanberry Tournament — on Friday against Stanberry.