Wells' 3-pointer sends Woodland girls basketball team into Delta New Year's semifinals

DELTA, Mo. -- With less than 10 seconds left and in possession of the basketball, Woodland girls basketball coach Robert Stein called a timeout and tried to take the pressure off his girls. Worst case scenario, he told them, this is going to overtime.

But the Cardinals had one play left to run and, tied at 38-all, Cheyenne Wells knocked down a 3-pointer from the left corner with :00.1 showing on the clock to send her team to a 41-38 victory over St. Vincent in the quarterfinals of the Delta New Year's Tournament at Delta High School on Monday night.

"You walk through all the scenarios," Stein said. "It was actually designed to go into one of our big kids, but when we fake passed it they collapsed in on her and we got it out for a nice shot."

Fourth-seeded Woodland (8-2) found a way to win on a night when it probably wouldn't describe much about its performance as "nice." Fifth-seeded St. Vincent (6-4) doubled up the Cardinals in the first quarter, 15-7, thanks to six points from Jackie Verseman down low. Abby Buchheit hit a 3 with 20 seconds left to cap a 7-0 run and give the Indians an eight-point advantage going into the second quarter.

Woodland turned to its defense to supplement a struggling offense, and held St. Vincent to just 10 points in the middle two quarters, including a scoreless drought that covered six and a half minutes of the third quarter.

It didn't automatically vault the Cardinals into the lead, but it did provide enough staying power to keep the door of opportunity cracked open later on.

Woodland shot just 12 of 47 from the field in the game.

Woodland's Cheyenne Wells watches her 3-point shot against St. Vincent that broke a tie in the final seconds a first-round game in the Delta New Year's Tournament Monday, Jan. 4, 2016 in Delta, Missouri. Woodland won 41-38. (Fred Lynch)

Wells led all scorers with 14 points, while Krista Rhodes added 11.

"St. Vincent played real well," Stein said. "They were ready for us. The coach did a great job and the kids did a good job slowing us down. They pushed their style on us instead of us putting ours on them. In my opinion, our team just didn't seem to play with great focus early on and didn't until pretty late and we had to make a shot with 4 seconds left. A great shot."

Verseman and Jenna WInkler each had 11 points for St. Vincent, which was 16 of 39 from the floor, but hit fewer 3s and did not get to the free-throw line as often as the Cardinals, who were 12 of 16 from the stripe.

"It was a fun game," St. Vincent coach Chad Unterreiner said. "We just happened to come out on the bottom end. We do have to get more consistent. We came off 20 days off and so I thought for our first game back we played a great game. Woodland's a good team and we gave them all they could handle for about 31 minutes and 55 seconds."

It was the first time back on the court for actual game action since December 16 for St. Vincent.

The Indians took a 21-17 lead into the second half and expanded that to 23-17 40 seconds in. That however, was the last time St. Vincent scored until inside the period's final minute. By that time, Woodland had gone on a 7-0 run, getting a putback from Hannah Scott to take its first lead, 24-23, since the 3:27 mark of the first quarter.

Faith Kapp found Jamie Best for a layup to give the Indians the edge back, but Wells was fouled while taking a 3 with 34 seconds remaining in the quarter, and she hit all three free throws to give Woodland a 27-25 lead after three.

St. Vincent's Jenna Winkler takes a shot as Woodland's Ciara Rainbolt, right, and Whitney Lincoln defend during the third quarter of a first-round game in the Delta New Year's Tournament Monday, Jan. 4, 2016 in Delta, Missouri. (Fred Lynch)

The lead see-sawed in the fourth quarter, with St. Vincent getting a jumper from the top of the key by Winkler to go up by four points with 5:25 remaining.

The Cardinals rushed back to within a point when Scott got a basket two minutes later, and Mara Grindstaff sunk a game-tying triple from the top left at 2:05.

Verseman answered for St. Vincent by getting three the hard way, and again the Indians were up.

But with 1:21 left Wells got the ball in transition after a steal and dropped the ball in to trail just 37-36.

Rhodes then hit a pair of free throws with 44 seconds remaining to give the Cardinals a 38-37 lead, before Kapp hit the front end of a pair of freebies to knot things at 38 with 10 seconds left.

Woodland then pushed the ball across mid court, called a timeout and found Wells.

"We wanted to make sure Rhodes wasn't the girl," Unterreiner said. "We contested and [Wells] hits a 3 from the corner.

"The effort was there, they were just one basket better than us tonight."

Woodland advances to take on top seed Saxony Lutheran in a semifinal tonight at 7.

St. Vincent will play a consolation semi versus Meadow Heights today at 4:30 p.m.

St. Vincent 15 6 4 13 -- 38

Woodland 7 10 10 14 -- 41

ST. VINCENT (38) -- Emily Welker 4, Jenna Winkler 11, Jackie Verseman 11, Jamie Best 2, Abby Buchheit 3, Carroll Corin 5. FG 16-39, FT 4-7, F 10. (3-pointers: Colin, Buchheit. Fouled out: None.)

WOODLAND (41) -- Whitney Lincoln 3, Cheyenne Wells 14, Mara Grindstaff 3, Hannah Scott 8, Ciara Rainbolt 2, Krista Rhodes 11. FG 12-47, FT 12-16, F 8. (3-pointers: Wells 2, Rhodes 2, Grindstaff. Fouled out: None).