Golden is golden for Lady Lancers

MORAN — Miranda Golden was a dominant force inside Tuesday for Crest Middle School’s girls.
Golden outscored Marmaton Valley Junior High by herself, 26 points to 25, in the Lancers’ 40-25 victory.
Rachel Godderz added 10 points, while Karlee Hammond and Taryn Covey scored four points apiece.
Marmaton Valley was paced by Misty Storrer’s 10 points, followed by Nalea Alexander with eight, Kyla Drake with five and Makayla Brooks with two.
“The girls played a great defensive game,” Wildcat coach Kim Ensminger said. “It’s difficult to stop a player that is a head taller than everybody else. Golden is a good player. We had a lot of open shots that just didn’t fall tonight.”
Crest led 15-3 after one quarter and 21-9 at the break. Marmaton Valley closed the gap to 27-19 after three quarters before the Lady Lancers pulled away down the stretch.
In B team action, Trinitee Gutierrez hit the winning bucket at the buzzer, 26-24.
“This was a fast-moving ball game,” Ensminger said.
The winning basket came when Makayla Brooks rebounded the ball and passed it to Gutierrez, who drove the length of the court before hitting the buzzer-beater.
Shayla Brooks led the Wildcats with 12 points. Gutierrez had seven. Makayla Brooks scored four and Megan Ensminger three.
Godderz paced the Crest B team with 15 points. Makayla Jones had four points, Jewel Armstrong three and Cameron Strickler two.
In boys action, Crest edged past the Wildcats 31-29 in the A team contest, while Marmaton Valley won 28-13 in the B team affair.
The A team game “was close for all four quarters,” Wildcat coach Scott Brady said. “We just fell a little short. We had a couple really tough calls at the end, and we didn’t play good enough defense when it mattered.”
Gage Adams scored 17 points to lead the Lancers. Carter Messenger, Nate Berry  and Caleb Stephens followed with four apiece. Austin Henrdix scored two.
Justice Pugh led the Wildcat A team with 15 points. Trevor Wilson added eight points. Ethan Tavarez, Brock Hall and Tony Jefferis scored two points each.
In the B team matchup, Crest led 10-8 before Marmaton Valley went on a 20-3 run in the second half.
“The boys kind of slept-walked through the first half, but came out firing after half and played a great 12 minutes of basketball,” Brady said.
Derek Nixon and Brock Hall shared high-scoring honors for Marmaton Valley with eight points. Kiefer Endicott scored six, while Colby Nelson, Jefferis and Korbin Smith scored two apiece.
Individual statistics for Crest’s B team were unavailable.
The Wildcats host Pleasanton Thursday. Crest hosts Westphalia on Thursday.