By DELBERT PETERS

Sports writer

Coming from behind doesn’t seem to bother the Goessel girls as they topped Sedgwick Friday, 43-35.

Goessel fell behind, 18-12, late in the second period, but scored seven straight points to take the lead early in the third period. Sedgwick put together some offense in the rest of the third quarter to go ahead at the end of the period, 29-23.

The Bluebirds scored 20 points in the fourth quarter and tied the game with 2 minutes, 7 seconds to play at 35-35. The Cardinals were not able to score the rest of the way and fouled Goessel to stop the clock.

Kendra Flaming scored 10 points in the fourth quarter with five of those points coming from the free-throw line. Although Aspen Frey sat out much of the third period with four fouls, she managed to score 10 points to go along with her aggressive defensive effort. Jessica Goertzen scored a season-high seven points with a basket to tie the game at 35-35 and then hit a free throw with less than 30 seconds to play to give the Bluebirds a 6-point lead.

Karina Harvey went to the free-throw line six times in the last part of the game and connected on two important points. Shanna Klassen gathered in a team high seven rebounds for the night.

The Bluebirds are now 2-0 in the Heart of America League and 5-2 overall. Although many tough games remain on the schedule, the Bluebird girls have already won more league games this season than last year.

Scoring against Sedgwick: Flaming 17, Frey 10, Goertzen 7, Harvey 6, Karis Janzen 2, Shanna Klassen 1.

OT thriller

In close games, the unexpected player can step up and make a difference. Several of the Goessel girls came up with big performances when needed. Such was the case Jan. 5 at Trinity Catholic School in Hutchinson.

The varsity girls won a thriller, 38-37, in overtime for their first league win of the season.

Goertzen scored only six points, but she had the last basket in regulation to tie the game and send the game into overtime. Then she came up big at the end of overtime to grab her sixth rebound of the game, and put in the basket for the winning shot. Klassen hit five of six free throws in a game where every point counted to go along with five rebounds. Flaming had another solid performance with a season-high 16 points. Frey came up with three steals, six rebounds, and four assists.

Contributing to the advantage Goessel had on the boards were Janzen with six rebounds and Harvey adding five.

Trinity led 15-9 early in the second quarter, but the Bluebirds went on a 13-2 run to take a 26-20 lead shortly after halftime. That lead disappeared as Trinity earned a 27-26 advantage with less than 2 minutes in the third period. The Goessel team would find itself behind by four points with just less than 5 minutes left in the game, but the determined Bluebirds scratched their way back into the game to tie at 34 at the end of regulation.

Flaming hit a basket in overtime and a Trinity player converted a 3-point play from the free-throw line, to give the home team a 1-point advantage.

It was the hustle of Goertzen to get in position for an offensive rebound that allowed her to score the last basket for the win, 38-37.

Scoring against Trinity: Flaming 16, Janzen 7, Klassen 7, Goertzen 6, Jennifer Van Horn 2.