By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

Friday was a good night for the Centre Cougars. They played Wakefield on the road, and both teams were victorious.

The girls won, 30-26, in overtime. After trailing by as much as 12 points in the first quarter and 6 points at halftime, they battled back to tie the game at 20-20 in the third quarter and 26-26 at the end of regulation play.

Wakefield failed to score in the overtime, but Centre’s Samantha Espinoza made a basket and Kelsey Hett made two free throws for the winning 4 points.

The team was pleased with the victory after a 4-point loss to Elyria earlier in the week. They were 9-7 overall.

“We did a good job rebounding,” coach Alan Stahlecker said. “Kelsey led us with 11, and Emily Schlesener and Kate Basore each pitched in nine. Samantha was four of five from the field and had four offensive rebounds as she led us in scoring with 8 points. Hett dished out four assists and Janel Dones had two blocks and pitched in a couple of critical baskets.”

The boys continued their past practice of spreading offensive scoring by rocketing to a first-quarter 14-4 lead on two treys by Cole Srajer, two baskets by Cody Svoboda, and one each by Zach Barney and Xavier Espinoza.

They all scored again in the second quarter and, along with a basket by Tanner Peterson, the Cougars increased their lead to 20 points, 31-11.

The Bombers picked up their play in the third quarter but were outscored 14 to 17. Coach Richard Idleman brought players off the bench for most of the final quarter, which Wakefield took advantage of to make an impressive run, but in the end, Centre won, 57-49.

Srajer led scoring with 18 points, followed by Svoboda with 17.