“We missed a few shots and they beat us down the floor,” Gabbard said. “We weren’t big enough or strong enough, but we hung with them as long as we could.”
Worthington Christian’s Blessing King led all scorers with 19 points and senior Katherine Weakley added 18.
Sophomore Megan Bailey scored 10 points for the Spartans, while senior Leah Butterbaugh and junior Isabella Cassoni each added nine points. The Spartans finished 16-7.
“I’m proud of them,” Gabbard said. “They played hard. We knew (Worthington Christian) was going to be good.”
Waynesville trailed 27-26 at the half, but the Warriors went on a 7-0 run — two putbacks by King and a 3-pointer by Weakley — to grab a 41-35 lead midway through the third quarter.
“We told them we had to keep them off the boards, we just weren’t able to do it,” Gabbard said.
Butterbaugh hit a 3-pointer and Cassoni hit a jumper to make it 41-40 after three quarters
The rest of the game belonged to the Warriors. A jumper by Meghan Mayotte, a 3-pointer by Weakley and back-to-back buckets by King extended Worthington Christian’s lead to 50-40. The Warriors were able to run the clock out in the final two minutes.
“I think we might have run out of gas a little bit,” Gabbard said. “They just beat us down the floor with their length and they could outrun us.”
Waynesville began the season without three starters and got off to a 5-5 start. Once they got healthy, the Spartans went 11-3 the rest of the way. They won a district title for the third time in four seasons.
Waynesville returns four starters next season and five of its top-6 rotation players, Gabbard said.
“We had a good season, we won another district and got back to the regionals,” Gabbard said. “We’ve got a lot of tradition and we’ll get back next year.”
Worthington Christian (24-1) will play Purcell Marian at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Springfield High School.
Purcell Marian 49, Anna 44: The Cavaliers took a 41-27 lead on a 3-pointer by Kara King with less than five minutes remaining, but the Rockets would go on a 14-3 run to pull within three points at 44-41 on two free throws by senior Mary Landis with 1:26 remaining.
The Cavaliers hit three of six free throws to extend their lead to 47-41, but the Rockets would again pull within three points at 47-44 on a 3-pointer by Kayli Brewer with 25.7 seconds remaining.
Anna wasn’t able to tie the score and were forced to foul. The Cavaliers hit two of three free throws in the final moments to seal the win.
“I couldn’t be more proud of my two seniors for what they gave us over the last four years,” said Rockets coach Jeff Maurer. “They make me look a lot smarter than I am. I couldn’t be more proud of the fight. I know it hurts and there’s nothing I can say in this locker room that’s going to change that, but the fight they showed right down to the end, not many teams would’ve come back in the fashion that they did being down like they were, having to scrap.”
Rockets senior Ella Doseck scored a game-high 21 points and reached 1,000 career points in the loss. She scored 13 points in the second half as the Rockets surged back into the game.
“She’s been doing that for four years,” Maurer said. “She put the team on her back for stretches.”
The Rockets will graduate two seniors from their squad that finished the season 18-8.
“We’ve got some girls who can build off this and hopefully be a part of something like this again,” Maurer said.
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