The Wayne High girls held on for dear life to open the 2021-22 season with a 46-42 win over Battle Creek Friday night, while the boys got out to a big lead early and cruised to a 69-44 win over the Braves.
The girls trailed for only two minutes, taking the lead for good on the first of Kiara Krusemark’s four 3-pointers to take a 5-4 lead. Baskets by Brooklyn Kruse and Mia Nelsen broke a 12-12 tie early in the second period and Wayne led by six at intermission, 23-17.
The Blue Devils built their lead to as many as 12 points in the third quarter, thanks to a pair of treys by Krusemark and a score off a turnover by Nelsen, to lead 31-19 with 5:55 to go in the third before Battle Creek began mounting a comeback.
Battle Creek got within four at 35-31 late in the third, but another trey by Krusemark and a basket by Nelsen off a nice pass by Madi Seivers built the lead back up to nine at 40-31 going to the fourth quarter.
Battle Creek stepped up its pressure on defense and got to within two at 44-42 on a free throw by Joslyn Hrabanek with :37 to go, but senior Rubie Klausen hit two key charity tosses in the game’s final seconds to seal the win.
Kruse scored a game-high 19 points for the 1-0 Blue Devils while Krusemark added 12.
There were no worries for the Blue Devil boys in their matchup. They raced to an 11-2 lead in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the contest and were never threatened by the visiting Braves.
Tanner Walling hit a pair of 3-pointers, the second a fadeaway from the corner as the first-quarter buzzer sounded, to make it a 21-7 Wayne advantage. The Blue Devils doubled that lead by halftime at 41-13 and Battle Creek never got closer than 23 points after that as Wayne cruised to a 1-0 start.
Walling led three Blue Devils in double figures with 16 points, followed by Daniel Judd with 14 and Camron Weaselhead with 11.
Both Wayne teams will be in Ponca for a boys-girls doubleheader, starting at 5:15 p.m.
