Stanton knocked off by Bedford in regional final

 CLARINDA — Bedford’s Fallyn Beemer’s six three-pointers spoiled the Stanton Viqueens opportunity at making it to the state tournament.

Bedford (17-7), who rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to tie the game in regulation and eventually win 56-51 in overtime, thwarted Stanton’s (23-2) hopes during last Monday’s 1A regional final at Clarinda High School.

“I’m not going to fault our kids’ heart,” Stanton Viqueens Coach Bruce Subbert said. “They played hard and fought the whole game.”

Stanton went into halftime with a 22-12 lead, courtesy of a putback bucket by Erin DeKay with seconds left on the clock. The defense contained Bedford, holding them to six points in both quarters. 

“We were being patient, working the ball a little bit. Offensively, we didn’t really have a great half,” Coach Subbert said. “The thing was we were playing really good defense and they were missing their shots.”

Stanton relied on senior forward Carmen Subbert to score much of the first half points, as she had 14.

Bedford began its comeback as they chipped away at the Stanton lead. Beemer sank a three-pointer with 2:46 left in the third quarter to give Bedford a 27-26 lead. The two teams swapped the lead, before Heidi Vanderholm was able to score with a minute to go, giving the Viqueens a 31-30 lead entering the fourth quarter.

“The first half they weren’t making any, the second half, especially the Beemer girl, they just caught fire,” Subbert said.

After both teams scored early, Stanton soon jumped out to a 41-34 lead with four minutes remaining in the game.

Bedford recovered and inched closer, trailing 45-41 with 90 seconds to go. Bedford made another free throw with about a minute to go as Subbert picked up her fourth foul. Stanton’s lead was 45-42.

The Viqueens had an opportunity to tack onto their lead, but Bedford got the ball back as Beemer made a three-pointer to tie game 45-45 with 22 seconds left.

“We played really good defense. We didn’t switch anything up in the second half, they just started making some shots,” Coach Subbert said. “Our plan was to take away some drives and force them to make some three’s and that’s exactly what we did.”

Stanton had the opportunity to end the game in regulation, but they weren’t able to get a shot off in time during the final seconds.

Bedford dealt the first blow in overtime with a foul and free throw to take a 48-45 lead. 

Moriah Kammerer responded with a two-point bucket of her own to cut the lead to 48-47 with 3:01 remaining in overtime.

The Viqueens did tie the game, but they were unable to regain the lead in the final minutes though, as Bedford held on for the win.

Beemer finished the game with 22 points. Her teammate Madison Walston, scored 15 points for Bedford and had 11 rebounds. Walston made critical free throws for Bedford, making 5-of-8.

“Our scouting report was [Walston] couldn’t make free throws. When I watched her on video, she couldn’t make free throws,” Subbert said. “Tonight, I don’t know if she missed too many.”

The win for Bedford marked their first appearance back to the state tournament since 2012. They lost last year’s regional final to Villisca.

Subbert meanwhile finished her final game in a Viqueen uniform with 21 points on 7-for-14 shooting, along with nine rebounds and three steals. The 502 points scored this season for Subbert is not only a career-high, but second most in Stanton history for points in a season. Older sister Christa holds the record with 552.

Carmen Subbert finishes her four-year basketball career at Stanton with 1,330 points, 643 rebounds, 266 assists and 274 steals.

Stanton started five seniors for the entirety of the season. In addition to Subbert, Kammerer, DeKay, Sara Sederburg and Macy Elwood were the primary starters during the season.

“Like I told them after the game, anytime we have seniors that stick around and listen to me harp on them for four years, that’s pretty good,” Coach Subbert said. “They have done a lot of neat things.”

Kammerer scored nine points and had 12 rebounds for Stanton in her final game. Sederburg had nine points, three rebounds and two assists for Stanton. DeKay had four points and six rebounds, while Elwood finished with five assists and four rebounds.

“They’re a pretty hard-nosed bunch of kids. They’re pretty determined and don’t like to lose,” Coach Subbert said. “They’re pretty tenacious.”

Vanderholm is the most notable of the likely returning Stanton players for next season. The junior played all 25 games for Stanton this season, playing in a six-man type of role and averaging 6.2 points per game.

Other likely returners for Stanton include Erin Sorensen, Logan Wagg, Lauren Stephens, Haley Weis, Chelsea Weis and Ally Focht.

“Somebody is going to have to step up. We’re going to need a little bit of everything,” Coach Subbert said. “There’s a lot of room for improvement with our younger kids.”

Bedford began the state tournament Monday when they faced Newell-Fonda in the quarterfinals.