The Doniphan West Lady Mustangs moved up in rankings from #7 to #6 in class 2A today from KBCA rankings and they showed why with a dominant second-half pull away from the Lady Eagles. Meanwhile, the Axtell boys continue their seven-game winning streak momentum to head into the night to face against a hot shooting team in the Mustangs. 

Girls - Doniphan West over Axtell 45-33

The first quarter was a slow start for both sides with Doniphan West coming out on top 9-6. The Eagles battled tough but Courtney Johnson led the quarter with five points for the Mustangs with a corner three.

The second quarter was a slow start for the Mustangs as they would jump up 14-8 before letting Axtell go on a six-point run to tie it at 14-14. The engine would fire back on for Doniphan West as they’d go on to score the last four points of the half to go up 18-14 to end the second quarter. Belle Smith for the Mustangs had a solid quarter with three points, two rebounds, and an assist. 

Doniphan West out-scored the Eagles 14-12 in the third quarter to lean into the fourth up 32-26 for the Mustangs. Axtell freshman Katelyn Detweiler would have her only scoring quarter for the Eagles with eight total points with a three-point shot and a three-for-three performance from the free-throw line. 

The Lady Mustangs would put the game away in the fourth by winning 45-33. At the start of the fourth quarter, the Mustangs fouled out Axtell’s star junior Natalee Strathman, and forced her to the bench. Axtell put up their second-lowest scoring quarter with just seven points and were held in check by the Mustang defense with around nineteen turnovers to end the night.

Courtney Johnson led the total scoring of the game with twelve points alongside her two steals, two threes, and three rebounds. Belle Smith finished not far behind with around nine points, three steals, two assists, and four boards. Maggie Strathman and Katelyn Detweiler would both finish with eight points to lead the scoring for the Eagles. 

Doniphan West would finish nine-of-fourteen from the free-throw line, while the Eagles finished thirteen-of-fifteen with only their freshman having taken to the charity stripe. Phenomenal game on both sides from the free-throw line. 

Boys - Axtell over Doniphan West 65-28

The start to Axtell and Doniphan West boys started as an early tussle between both sides with the last closest score of the game being a 9-8 favor of the Axtell Eagles. The Eagles would proceed to score the last ten points of the quarter to head into the second up 19-8. Eli Broxterman had seven points in the first with a three while Colin Shaughnessy came off the bench and scored nearly eight straight in the paint for Axtell. 

The score was 37-20 heading into the halftime as the Mustangs managed a better scoring second quarter with Eberly hitting his second three of the half and Kelby Winderymeyer finding four points in the quarter as well. Doniphan West ended the half with a fade-away near-elbow bucket from Dustin Veach in which he was also fouled to finish the half with an and-one.

The second half was brutal with a running clock quickly being applied in the fourth quarter. Axtell would out-score Doniphan West 28-8 in the second half alone to put the game to rest. Colin Shaughnessy added four more points for himself in the second half while Broxterman would hit a three in the third quarter to put him at fourteen points to finish the game. 

Colin Shaughnessy would end the game with fifteen points, a steal, an assist, and four rebounds for the Eagles. Schmelze would finish with eight, complimented by two threes in the second quarter. Wyatt Detweiler hit two threes in the game and finished with eight as well. The Eagles had eight total threes on the game, went three-of-three from the free-throw line, and nearly had thirty boards. Cooper Eberly led Doniphan West with eleven points in the game with three threes.

Summary

The Lady Mustangs move up to 10-2 overall and 4-0 in league play whilst the Boys drop to 3-10 overall and 0-5 in the TVL. The Axtell girls now fall below .500 at 6-7 with a 1-3 mark in the TVL while the Axtell boys are now 10-1 overall and 4-0 in the league. Axtell will next play Lourdes Central Catholic and Doniphan West will play Blue Valley-Randolph.