Hornets lose in nail-biter to Dons

The Colby girls basketball squad hosted the Columbus Dons last Friday evening. In another closely contested match between the two Cloverbelt-East teams, the Hornets came up just short, falling 44-43 in a contest that went down to the final seconds.

Neither team started the game off how they may have wanted on offense, with the two teams combining for five points over the first four minutes of the game. A floater in the lane from Kylie Orth kicked off a small offensive spurt from the Hornets, going on a 7-0 run to take a 10-2 lead.

The Dons slowly but surely ate away at that lead as the half progressed. A three from Columbus’ Hailey Zimmermann gave the visitors their first lead of the game, going up 20-18 with seven minutes left to play in the period.

Colby’s full court pressure paid off a few possessions later when Hayden Willner picked the pocket of one of the Dons’ guards. She converted the steal into a three-point play after getting fouled on the made layup and making the following free throw. The play gave the Hornets a 23-22 advantage. Colby held on to the one-point lead for the rest of the period, going into halftime up 27-26.

A three from the Dons’ Jenna Kibbel opened the second period, putting the visitors back on top. After trading baskets, the score remained stuck at 32-29 for five minutes as both teams tightened their defenses in the middle portions of the game. Willner ended the scoring drought, turning another steal into a transition basket for the Hornets.

The Hornets kept the game within a possession as the clock ticked under two minutes. With Colby still down by one, Angelique Hernandez slipped past the defense on an inbound play and scored to give the home team their first lead since they lost it a minute into the second half. Columbus answered with a basket of their own on the next series, putting the pressure back on the Hornets. On the next possession, Orth found Savana Thomsen on a pick and roll, leading to an easy layup for Thomsen, putting Colby up 43-42 with 45 seconds to play.

Once again, the Dons responded, Courtney Sommer hitting an open jumper just moments after Thomsen’s basket and giving the lead back to Columbus. Colby had multiple opportunities to get their second straight win in the game’s final moments but could not get any of their final three shot attempts to fall.

For the second time this season, the Dons squeaked out a victory against Colby, with both of their victories over the Hornets seeing Columbus taking the lead off of baskets in the final minute of the game.

Willner led the Hornets with 11 points and Alexis Vanderhoof had both of the Hornets three-point shots while contributing 10 points. Orth ended the game with nine points, Hernandez had six, Dakota Hoeper had five, and Thomsen had two.

The Hornets will travel to Owen-Withee for another Cloverbelt-East game this Thursday to take on the Blackhawks. The last time the two teams faced each other, Owen-Withee came away with the win, narrowly defeating Colby 62-59. The rematch is set to start at 7:15 p.m.