WAVERLY — Marty McKinney didn’t try to take the credit. This one, he said, was all his players.

Trailing Waverly-Shell Rock 25-21 at the half Saturday night, the Webster City players had the idea to switch to a 1-2-2 zone defense and McKinney, the head coach, went with their plan.

It worked out well.

WCHS (7-3) limited the Go-Hawks (6-6) to just 12 second-half points and outscored the hosts 16-4 in the fourth to pull out a 43-37 non-conference victory, the Lynx sixth consecutive win.

“Give the kids a lot of credit because they were talking about it before the coaches even got to the locker room at halftime,” McKinney said of the defensive switch. “We used the 1-2-2 and a 2-3 in the fourth, and the kids guarded. They’re really starting to get it at the defensive end.”

WCHS ended a nine-game losing streak against W-SR, its last win in the series prior to Saturday coming nearly eight years ago. McKinney said the attitudes of his players played a pivotal role.

“They expected to win,” he said. “A lot of times in the past we’ve just hoped to compete against Waverly and we’ve been close, but this group expected to win, even in the fourth quarter when we were down.”

Dylan Steen knocked down four consecutive free throws in the closing moments and the senior supplied 14 points, eight rebounds and two assists in the triumph. Henry Hoversten also scored 14 points to go along with six boards. Drake Doering added seven points.

It was a struggle at times at the offensive end, but what the Lynx accomplished in the defensive court had their coach upbeat.

“We knew points were going to be really hard to come by because they are really good on the defensive end, so we knew we were going to have to get stops if we were going to win and we did,” McKinney said.

Mosai Newsom was the lone W-SR player to score in double figures. He finished with 10 points.

Webster City 43, Waverly-SR 37

Saturday at Waverly

Webster City (7-3) — Dylan Steen 4 6-6 14, Drake Doering 2 1-2 7, Nathan Ferrell 1 0-0 2, Tavis Eklund 0 0-0 0, Tyler Olson 1 0-0 2, Carter Neuroth 2 0-0 4, Henry Hoversten 6 2-5 14. Totals: 16 9-13 43.

Waverly-SR (6-6) — Trey Angel 1 0-0 3, Kurby Vowels 0 0-0 0, Josh Halverson 2 0-0 5, Hogan Hansen 3 1-2 9, Cade Pruhs 2 0-0 4, Ethan Reichert 2 0-1 5, Keaton Farmer 0 0-0 0, Caleb Burks 0 1-2 1, Mosai Newsom 5 0-2 10. Totals: 15 2-7 37.

Webster City 9 12 6 16 — 43

Waverly-SR 6 19 8 4 — 37

3-point field goals — WC 2 (Doering 2); W-SR 5 (Hansen 2, Angel, Halverson, Reichert). Rebounds — WC 21 (Steen 8, Hoversten 6). Steals — WC 5 (Olson 2). Assists — WC 5 (Steen 2). Turnovers — WC 6. Team fouls — WC 11, W-SR 16. Fouled out — none.