The West Prairie/Southeastern Lady Cyclones traveled to Havana without their leading scorer and the Ducks capitalized with a 63-28 victory last Monday night.
But WP/SE rebounded on Wednesday night with a 49-30 win over visiting Monmouth United to improve to 12-9 for the season.
Against Havana, the hosts ran out to a 20-3 first quarter lead as the Cyclones were without the services of senior Madelynn Sullivan (illness).
WP/SE would close the gap to 32-18 as sophomore Madison McClure drilled a three-pointer before the halftime buzzer.
Much of the Cyclones offensive struggles came from the foul line as WP/SE shot only 9-of-18 from the charity stripe in the first half.
Havana continued to pull away in the second half as the Cyclones were held to just three field goals, two of them three-pointers by McClure.
McClure led WP/SE (0-1 Prairieland South) with nine points while Kara Stephens finished with seven.
Other scorers for the Cyclones included Payton McGrew with six points, Alyvia Barkley and Emily Martin had two points each and Josie Hodges finished with one.
Kaydi Miller led Havana (14-4, 2-0 Prairieland South) with 23 points while Ava Kramer added 19.
The Ducks were ranked No. 10 in this week’s Associated Press Class 1A Poll that was announced on Wednesday.
Despite the loss, West Prairie head coach Grant Bland said that he felt the game proved to be a valuable learning experience for his younger players.
“I learned that we do have people that were stepping up into roles,” said Bland. “McClure came in and hit like three three-pointers for us in some big spots. We knew in the third quarter that (Havana) would amp up the pressure a little bit and they did.”
“But I was glad that we kept clawing and didn’t fully give up, which is good,” Bland added.
With Sullivan back in the lineup, West Prairie returned home on Wednesday night to host Monmouth United and led throughout enroute to a 49-30 victory over the Storm.
The Cyclones’ defense limited United to only three field goals in the first quarter as WP/SE grabbed a 15-7 lead going into the second period.
The Cyclones took their largest lead of the half on a jumper by Sullivan with 1:14 remaining to make it 24-12.
Following a trey by United’s Ella Brown, Barkley answered with a basket down the stretch to send WP/SE into the locker room with a 26-15 lead.
The Storm would come out to start the third quarter on a 5-0 run to close within 26-20 before Sullivan drilled a trey with 5:19 left to make it 29-20.
McGrew scored eight of her game-high 15 points in the quarter to help keep United at bay as the Cyclones extended their advantage to 40-26 after three quarters.
The WP/SE defense stepped up once again over the final eight minutes to limit the Storm to only four points in the fourth quarter to secure the victory.
Besides McGrew, Sullivan also finished in double figures with 13 points.
Other Cyclones to reach the scoring column were Barkley with nine points, Stephens had eight and Hodges added four points.
Ada Kunkle led United (4-12) with 12 points.
With its 12th win, West Prairie/Southeastern doubled last season’s total of six victories.
“A really cool moment,” said Bland. “I think 10 or 12 of our wins are against teams that beat us a year ago. United is always a good club and they’re young. They beat us by 40 last year, so for us to come in and take care of business again is really good to see especially when we’re not at our healthiest here.”
The Cyclones returned to action Thursday, heading to Hamilton to face West Hancock. The Titans (17-2) are currently ranked No. 9 in Class 2A by the AP.
The Cyclones will then head to Bushnell for a Prairieland South Division against Bushnell-Prairie City on Jan. 20.
