YODER – The Southeast High School girls’ basketball team scored a 34-31 come-from-behind victory over Encampment on Friday afternoon in Yoder to close out the Dogger Classic.
Earlier, in the morning session, Class 1A No. 4-ranked Southeast came up short against the top-ranked Kaycee Lady Buckaroos, 43-35.
The Lady Cyclones led 24-21 at the half, but Kaycee outscored Southeast 22-11, including 12-4 over the final eight minutes to pull away for the victory.
“We played in the first half. We matched Kaycee step-for-step,” Southeast Head Coach Jennifer Scheer said. “We flat lost our aggressive edge in the second half. In contrast, Kaycee came out as the more aggressive team, and we never recovered.”
Sophomore Brenna Herring led Southeast with 13 points, while sophomore Sydney Anderson added 10.
In the afternoon contest, the Lady Cyclones found themselves trailing No. 5 Encampment from the first moments of the game but closed the game on a 7-3 spurt to pick up the victory.
“It was one of those games where you are happy you win the game,” Scheer said. “The kids made the adjustments I needed them to make at halftime, but we are going to have to take care of the opportunities given.”
The visiting Lady Tigers grabbed a 10-4 lead by the early moments in the second quarter, but back-to-back buckets by Herring drew Southeast within two at 10-8.
That proved to be as close as the team came to seeing the lead until the fourth quarter.
“We had too many good looks that we didn’t execute on, and flat missed a lot of opportunities we didn’t necessarily know we had,” Scheer said. “Execution is going to be a big term in our vocabulary coming up.”
Midway through the final frame, Anderson drained a 3-pointer to put Southeast in front 30-28.
For the remainder of the game, Southeast kept Encampment at bay to hold for the victory – its second of the season.
The Southeast defense only allowed Encampment to take 11 shots in the second half.
“You’ve heard me say it hundreds of times, our defense wins games,” Scheer said. “Right there is a perfect example.”
Junior Grace Desmond led the Lady Cyclones with seven points.
“Grace allows me a lot more flexibility,” Scheer said. “I can play her inside. I can play her outside. I can move her all over the floor. She is a very smart, heads-up player. It’s been a really big help to have her out there helping us out.”
Herring added six, while sophomore Kealy Carson and Anderson had five each.
Southeast (2-2) will return to the court on Tuesday, Dec. 29 at Bridgeport, Neb. (5-1). Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m.
“That’s a good team down there,” Scheer said. “They have a very talented, very tall young lady and a couple girls who are tremendous shots from the outside.”
