News editor
Sometimes it takes a horrible quarter of basketball to find out just what a team is made of.
Peabody-Burns boys and girls teams could’ve cashed it in Tuesday after a hapless, frustrating quarters against Canton-Galva, and in the midst of losing streaks, most could understand if they’d have chosen to coast.
Not the Warriors. Both teams played perhaps their best basketball of the season in their respective final quarters, although coming up shy in the win column.
The first half of the girls’ game was a matter of hack and hack alike, as both teams reached the bonus at the free throw line on the way to a 27-15 Canton-Galva lead at the half.
Dismal best describes the Warriors’ third quarter, a 4-point fizzle as the visitors blew the game wide open, 41-19 going into the fourth.
Few on the court or in the stands were prepared for what the Warriors did next.
Ignited by two Tori Pickens’ scores, the Warriors closed out the last 5 minutes of the game with a stunning 16-1 run. Nicole Sanders, Mallory Harris, and Anna Lubbers all got in on the scoring fray.
In all the excitement of a 20-point quarter, it hardly mattered that Canton-Galva won 51-39.
Harris, Lubbers, and Pickens each scored 7 points.
The boys took futility to a new level with a scoreless second quarter, and combined with a lackluster first trailed 20-6 at the half.
Things got a little bit better offensively in the third quarter, as the Warriors eclipsed their first half output with 7 points, but Canton-Galva increased its lead to 32-15.
In the fourth, it was game on for the Warriors. Led by a breakout 9-point blitz by Rocco Weertz that included a trey and three layups, Peabody-Burns rolled up 20 points while holding the visitors to 11. Austin Reynolds contributed 6 of his team-high 17 points to the run, and Chance Elliott and Jayton Scott each canned baskets. The team shaved more than half off of the 17-point deficit it faced, creating a single-digit margin of 8 in a 43-35 loss.