Lady 'Cats fend off rival Lady Lions

MOWRYSTOWN — The Whiteoak Lady Wildcats began their Southern Hills Athletic Conference matchup with the Fairfield Lady Lions with a very strong start, then fended off a rally and eventually held on to a late lead in the fourth frame to defend their home court and gain a win Monday evening.

The Lady ’Cats defeated the visiting Lady Lions 54-49 at Whiteoak High School, and they did so by not allowing the Lady Lions to have one final rally in the final minutes of the quarter, even with the score being tied twice in the final eight minutes.

“We wrote one word on the board, and that was ‘focus,’” WHS head coach Randy Abbott said. “There was nothing new we could tell them, but I thought down the stretch we made some mistakes and mental errors, but as a team, we did a better job shooting, were more focused and played with more discipline.

“Again, the girls played hard. We had some adversity to get over, and in the past we’d go into our shell when things didn’t go our way, but (Monday) it encouraged us to play harder.”

Though the Lady ’Cats (2-6, 3-12) did enough to hold on for what was their third win of the season, they began the game very strong, scoring the first seven points of the game within the first two minutes of play, including a 3-pointer by Emma Wardlow at the 6:08 mark for the 7-0 lead. Wardlow led WHS with 17 points. Ten of those points came from the free-throw line.

Fairfield (4-4, 9-6) came back with two free throw conversions, but WHS was right there, answering with consecutive 3-pointers by Ashleigh Harless at 5:33 and 5:07 for a 13-2 advantage, forcing the Lady Lions to call a timeout. Harless finished with 13 points in the win.

“Ashleigh came out early and made some big baskets for us,” Abbott said. “It was about coming out of the gate hard. If we get in our spots, we’ll get good looks at the basket, but we have to be disciplined enough to do that, and (Monday) I felt like we did that.”

Following the timeout, the Lady Lions scored their first field goal of the game as Macie Pauley scored two points on a put-back basket, only to see WHS regain their 11-point lead with 3:46 left in the opening frame off a two-point bucket by Michaela Luman.

FHS scored four straight points off two baskets by Grace Shope, and by the time the end of the first frame came to a close, the Lady ’Cats had built a 10-point lead for a 20-10 advantage.

The Lady Lions opened the second frame with a 5-0 run with two points from Pauley and a 3-pointer by Lauren Arnold, who ended the game with 10 points, at the 6:21 mark of the first for a 20-17 deficit.

Fairfield eventually tied the score for the first time at 22-22 following a basket by Trinity Huff (seven points for the game) with 4:09 left in the second frame, and later they took their first lead of the game, this time off another 3-pointer by Arnold with 3:15 left in the half for a 25-24 advantage, erasing the former 11-point deficit of the first quarter.

That 3-pointer began a 6-0 run of scoring that ended with Arnold sinking a free throw for a four-point lead by the Lady Lions with 2:00 on the scoreboard. WHS came back with points from Jaycie Parr, only to be answered by Shope off a steal and fast break layup. Shope led all scorers with 23 points, as she was 8-of-14 from the free-throw line.

“We were down 13-2 and we weathered the storm, chipped away,” FHS head coach Chad Hamilton said. “They switched defenses up, or it looked like they did, and we had a hard time adjusting to it. I was proud of the way we came back.

“I felt much better at halftime than I did in the first couple of minutes, but the second half slipped away with the little things. We have to get some stops, and we gave up too many offensive rebounds. We have them in two weeks, so maybe we’ll remember what we need to do a little better.”

WHS made it a two-point differential with Wardlow sinking two free throws with just seconds remaining in the opening half as FHS led 30-28.

“We knew they would make a run, and I wanted to see how my kids would react,” Abbott said. “We went down two at halftime. I told the kids at halftime that good teams make runs, and I knew we could do it, and I told them to go back out and play focused.”

Whiteoak won the third frame by outscoring the Lady Lions 11-7, as that quarter began with a layup from Lexi Jones to tie the score at 30-30 with 7:03 left in the frame. Those points started an 8-0 run to open the quarter by WHS, as they also had two free throws by Wardlow and four more points by Jones for a 36-30 advantage. Jones totaled 10 points for the game.

Shope brought FHS back to within three points with points from the free-throw line, and later Arnold tied the score at 36 with her third and final 3-pointer of the game with 2:51 left in the quarter. From there, WHS answered with a layup by Parr (who finished with eight points) and a free throw from Wardlow. FHS ended the third-quarter scoring with a free throw conversion of their own from Huff, but WHS ended the quarter with a 39-37 lead.

WHS sealed the win by outscoring the Lady Lions, 15-12 in the final eight minutes, and did so by making one 3-pointer, four two-point baskets and three free throws.

In that frame, it was Fairfield who scored first, tying the score at 39-39 with a steal and two points by Shope. Harless sank her third 3-pointer of the game to put WHS back in front at 42-39, and as the quarter continued, Shope tied the score at 44-44 with a 3-pointer, leaving 5:21 left in regulation.

That would be the final time the score was tied between the two Highland County counterparts, with each team going back and forth, while WHS kept their lead by making baskets at the free-throw line, including Harless putting the game out of reach with two final baskets from the free-throw line for the five-point win.

“It seems like every time we play them, it comes down to a close game, no matter what the records are,” Hamilton said. “They (WHS) came out on fire, and we got into a hole, but came back. In the end, they executed more than we did, so give them credit. They had a good game plan, and they executed it well.

“They took away some of the things we like to do, but they outplayed us in the end, plain and simple.”

WHS will play again on Thursday as they travel to Fayetteville for a SHAC game. The Lady Lions will host West Union on Thursday, also a conference game.