The historic run by the West Prairie/Southeastern girls basketball team continued in stunning fashion Monday evening as the seventh seeded Cyclones upset second-seed Liberty 36-32 in a semifinal game of the Class 1A Havana Regional.
Liberty entered the contest as the seventh-ranked team in Class 1A by the Associated Press and had defeated WP/SE 70-36 back on Nov. 22 at the Lady Hornet Classic in Mt. Sterling.
This time around, the Cyclones were more prepared to handle what the Eagles dished out throughout the night.
In its previous meeting, Liberty ran out to a 21-10 lead after one quarter and were never threatened.
WP/SE made sure that didn’t happen again as Liberty held only a 10-8 advantage heading into the second quarter.
With their defense creating problems on one end of the floor, the Cyclones’ offense took off in the second quarter as four different players got into the scoring column in the period.
That included leading scorer Madelynn Sullivan who led WP/SE with 10 points in the first half including two three-pointers.
Sparked by an 11-4 run to close out the half, the Lady Cyclones outscored Liberty 15-7 in the quarter to take a 23-17 halftime lead.
WP/SE continued to attack the Eagles on both ends of the floor in the third quarter.
Despite managing only two field goals in the period, both by Sullivan including her third trey of the night, the Cyclones still outscored Liberty 11-9 in the period. That was thanks in part to converting 6-of-8 from the charity stripe, allowing WP/SE to hold a 34-26 lead going into the final eight minutes.
Defense took over in the fourth quarter for both teams as the Eagles clawed their way back.
After trailing by as many as 12 in the third quarter, Liberty rallied back to within four with just under six minutes remaining on a Weslee John basket underneath.
A WP/SE turnover a short time later led to a basket by Riley Fessler to bring the Eagles to within 34-32 midway through the period.
The score would remain the same until Kara Stephens finally got the Cyclones on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter by hitting one-of-two from the foul line to make it 35-32 with 43 seconds left.
Liberty would not score again and Stephens sank one-of-two free throws with 11 seconds remaining to give WP/SE it’s biggest win in program history.
“I wish I had more words to describe the feeling of watching our team pull out that win,” said WP/SE head coach Grant Bland. “We stuck to our defensive game plan and that made the difference for us. We actually valued the basketball, too, and did a better job of handling full court pressure.”
Sullivan led WP/SE with a game-high 16 points and Stephens finished with eight points.
Ashlynn Kelley had six points and Alyvia Barkley, Josie Hodges, and Payton McGrew each added two points.
John led the Eagles with 14 points as Liberty saw its season come to a close with a 26-5 record.
The victory improved WP/SE to 18-15 for the season, the highest win total in program history, and also gave the Cyclones their second consecutive regional tournament victory, another program first.
“I am so proud of this team and hope they realize how big of a deal it is and what they just accomplished,” said Bland.
WP/SE was scheduled to face third-seed Havana (23-6) for its first-ever regional championship on Thursday.
The teams met previously back on Jan. 12 at Havana as the Ducks defeated the Cyclones 63-28. Sullivan missed that contest due to illness and did not play in the first meeting.
The winner will advance to the Bushnell-Prairie City Sectional on Tuesday, Feb. 24.
