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Independence, MO —
When William Chrisman senior forward Nieka Wheeler found out that her Bears basketball team owned a 14-game winning streak against visiting Fort Osage, she made a vow.
“I just said to myself that there was no way they were going to beat us in our gym my senior year,” said Wheeler, who scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Bears to a 51-45 Suburban Middle Seven Conference win Thursday over the Indians.
“I think Fort Osage wanted this game more than we did, until the fourth quarter. That's when we played like we wanted to keep that winning streak alive.”
With 4:12 left in the fourth quarter, the Indians' Alli Ventresca hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to cut the Bears’ lead to just 40-38.
That's when Wheeler and teammate De'Jionae Calloway took the game over.
They led the Bears on an 8-2 run that helped Chrisman improve to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play. The Bears have won three consecutive conference titles.
“After we win a conference game,” said Bears coach Lindsay Thompson, a Fort Osage grad, “we take a ribbon off a banner and put in on our conference banner. We have three banners full of those ribbons and we want to have another conference banner full of ribbons this year, too.
“It's like I told the girls, 'One down, 11 to go.' They get pretty excited when we play a conference opponent. It wasn't very pretty tonight, but the girls found a way to get it done.”
A confident 2-4, 1-1 Indians team came to Chrisman Thursday night and gave the Bears all they could handle through three quarters of action.
The score was tied 10-all after one quarter and Ventresca's buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the half helped the Indians make up some ground as they trailed 24-20 going into the locker room.
Fort then went on a 6-0 run to begin the third period to take a 26-24 lead, but a determined Bears squad went on its own 8-0 run to take a 32-26 lead it never relinquished.
“We had the (38-31) lead going into the last quarter and maybe we got overconfident,” Wheeler said, “but they came back strong. It was good tonight to get some help from De'Jionae down under the basket.”
Following Ventresca's 3-pointer, that made it a two-point game, Wheeler hit a free throw, Calloway drove to the basket and hit a layup, was fouled and hit the free throw and Wheeler scored on a layup to make the score 46-38.
“We wanted to be strong inside,” said Calloway, who finished with 11 points. “We had to work hard because (Asia Cole) is so strong. She lowered my scoring tonight, but we scored enough to win and that's all that matters.”
Ventresca finished with 16 points.
When William Chrisman senior forward Nieka Wheeler found out that her Bears basketball team owned a 14-game winning streak against visiting Fort Osage, she made a vow.
“I just said to myself that there was no way they were going to beat us in our gym my senior year,” said Wheeler, who scored a team-high 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Bears to a 51-45 Suburban Middle Seven Conference win Thursday over the Indians.
“I think Fort Osage wanted this game more than we did, until the fourth quarter. That's when we played like we wanted to keep that winning streak alive.”
With 4:12 left in the fourth quarter, the Indians' Alli Ventresca hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to cut the Bears’ lead to just 40-38.
That's when Wheeler and teammate De'Jionae Calloway took the game over.
They led the Bears on an 8-2 run that helped Chrisman improve to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play. The Bears have won three consecutive conference titles.
“After we win a conference game,” said Bears coach Lindsay Thompson, a Fort Osage grad, “we take a ribbon off a banner and put in on our conference banner. We have three banners full of those ribbons and we want to have another conference banner full of ribbons this year, too.
“It's like I told the girls, 'One down, 11 to go.' They get pretty excited when we play a conference opponent. It wasn't very pretty tonight, but the girls found a way to get it done.”
A confident 2-4, 1-1 Indians team came to Chrisman Thursday night and gave the Bears all they could handle through three quarters of action.
The score was tied 10-all after one quarter and Ventresca's buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the half helped the Indians make up some ground as they trailed 24-20 going into the locker room.
Fort then went on a 6-0 run to begin the third period to take a 26-24 lead, but a determined Bears squad went on its own 8-0 run to take a 32-26 lead it never relinquished.
“We had the (38-31) lead going into the last quarter and maybe we got overconfident,” Wheeler said, “but they came back strong. It was good tonight to get some help from De'Jionae down under the basket.”
Following Ventresca's 3-pointer, that made it a two-point game, Wheeler hit a free throw, Calloway drove to the basket and hit a layup, was fouled and hit the free throw and Wheeler scored on a layup to make the score 46-38.
“We wanted to be strong inside,” said Calloway, who finished with 11 points. “We had to work hard because (Asia Cole) is so strong. She lowered my scoring tonight, but we scored enough to win and that's all that matters.”
Ventresca finished with 16 points.
