Lady Mustangs’ defense sends them to win over rival Whiteoak

DODSONVILLE — Going into Monday’s game against the visiting Whiteoak Lady Wildcats, the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs had suffered two consecutive losses, but once the final buzzer sounded LCHS was back on the winning track, defeating Whiteoak, 43-38 en route to the conference win. 

The Lady Mustangs increased their aggressiveness on defense, which kept the scoring low and right where they wanted to keep the Lady ’Cats, who had their struggles with their shooting, as they shot 24.6 percent from the field. Before the game, WHS was averaging 51.1 points per game. 

“Whiteoak is a really high-powered scoring team. They’ve got [Kyra] Boyd, and she’s a scorer and she’s going to find ways to score, so we wanted to limit her touches and limit her getting to the basket,” LCHS head coach Whitney Lewis said. “Our girls came out in a 2-3 zone, and we are really good at that when we communicate and get our coverages, and we did a really good job of that.

“I thought another key part of that was we didn’t give them too many second-chance opportunities. It was kind of one-and-done, and we were able to get the rebound and turn that into an offensive possession. This was one of our better rebounding games, and we are outsized every single game. We aren’t going to be the biggest team on the floor. We got into some foul trouble tonight because we were so aggressive at getting the basketball. We had to battle that a little bit, but those are hustle fouls we can live with.”

The first frame saw the Lady Mustangs lead 8-6 after the first eight-minute quarter, though it was consecutive baskets by Whiteoak’s Kyra Boyd that saw the visiting Lady Wildcats take a four-point lead with 5:29 left in the quarter. 

Boyd led Whiteoak with 14 points, as she made six two-point baskets and was 2-of-6 from the free-throw line. She also collected a double-double with the senior grabbing 13 rebounds (six offensive), with six assists. 

LCHS scored their first points of the game with consecutive baskets by Addy Carraher with the sophomore draining two 3-pointers at the 4:15 and 2:38 marks of the first frame for a 6-4 Lady Mustangs lead. Carraher finished with 10 points in the win, including the two 3-pointers, and she was 4-of-8 from the free-throw line. 

The score was tied at 6-6 with a basket by Boyd, but the Lady Mustangs took back the lead with a steal and layup from Lily Ferguson with 4.0 left in the clock for an 8-6 lead. Ferguson led all scorers with 20 points, ending with six two-point baskets, and she was 8-of-10 from the free-throw line, including going 7-of-8 from the FT line in the second half. 

LCHS outscored the Lady ’Cats by one point in the second frame at 10-9 for a three-point halftime lead at 18-15, as they began the quarter with baskets by Ava McLaughlin and Ferguson for a 12-6 lead. McLaughlin finished the win with four points off two buckets. 

Whiteoak answered with baskets from Ella Howard and Dinah Ames, making it a two-point game. Howard totaled seven points for WHS, with two two-pointers, a 3-pointer and she added seven rebounds, one assist and two steals. Ames ended with five points with a two-pointer, a 3-pointer, and she had six rebounds, with five steals. 

The quarter continued with LCHS having points from Joslyn Rockey and Ferguson, but the quarter ended with a 3-pointer by Whiteoak’s Howard and two made free throws by Boyd for the 18-15 score at halftime. 

“Joslyn played phenomenal tonight,” Lewis said. “She had eight points, but she was all over the place. Defensively, she was getting rebounds against kids who were twice her size, and she was getting offensive rebounds too. I thought she was everywhere and showing that senior leadership when it comes to, ‘Hey, who are we getting the ball to, let's get it to her to control things for us.”

Lynchburg-Clay held a three-point lead after the third quarter ended at 29-26 as the score was tied once at 21-21 following two straight baskets by Boyd with the game-tying bucket falling at the 2:43 mark of the quarter as WHS came out of a timeout. 

LC took back the lead with a free-throw by Ferguson, but WHS went back ahead following a 3-pointer by Taelyn Shriver from the corner of the court around the 2:00 mark. LCHS went back in the lead with a steal and fastbreak layup from Ferguson while being fouled. The three-point play was completed with the made free throw with 1:15 on the third-quarter clock. 

The quarter wrapped up with a basket by Whiteoak’s Libby Webster, and LCHS answered with two free throws by Ferguson and a jumper from McLaughlin for the three-point Lady Mustang lead.  

In the fourth quarter, the Lady Mustangs didn’t relinquish the lead, but saw their lead go as low as two points with 6:37 left in the game following a 3-pointer from Peyton Gobin. LCHS held a seven-point lead four times, with the last time being with 11.1 left on the clock at LCHS following a 3-pointer by Carraher. 

Other final scoring totals by the Lady Wildcats included Ames (5), Gobin (3), Shriver (7), Howard (7) and Webster (2). 

Lynchburg-Clay also had final scoring totals from Savannah Bell (1) and McLaughlin (4). 

Final totals for LCHS included nine two-pointers, three 3-pointers, and they were 16-of-26 from the free-throw line. 

“Ava (McLaughlin) had a good game too, and we also stepped up and hit free throws, maybe not as many as we liked, but at the end we kind of sealed it with that,” Lewis said. “We did a good job there.”

Whiteoak’s final team totals were 11 two-pointers, four 3-pointers and they were 4-of-8 from the free-throw line. WHS also had 37 rebounds (20 offensive), nine assists, 14 steals and had 20 turnovers. 

In the JV game, Lynchburg-Clay and Whiteoak tied at 14 in a two-quarter game. Hitting the game-tying shot at the buzzer was LC’s Lizzie Hall. 

Next for LCHS (2-4, 3-8) is an away SHAC game on Thursday, Jan. 8 against the Ripley Lady Blue Jays. 

“We get better each and every game, and there are moments where we step backward, but every team is going to have that. Overall, we are headed in the right direction and playing the way we need to, to be successful,” Lewis said. 

Whiteoak (3-2, 5-2) is scheduled to play next on Thursday, Jan. 8 at home against the Fairfield Lady Lions (3-2, 8-3). 

BOX SCORE 
WHS     06 09 11 12 — 38
LCHS    08 10 11 14 — 43

LYNCHBURG-CLAY (42) — L.Ferguson 6 (0) 8-10 20, S.Bell 0 (0) 1-4 1, J.Rockey 1 (1) 3-4 8, A.McLaughlin 2 (0) 0-0 4, A.Carraher 0 (2) 4-8 10. TOTALS: 9 (3) 16-26 43. 

WHITEOAK (38) — K.Boyd 6 (0) 2-6 14, C.Captain 0 (0) 0-2 0, D.Ames 1 (1) 0-0 5, P.Gobin 0 (1) 0-0 3, T.Shriver 1 (1) 2-2 7, E.Howard 2 (1) 0-0 7, L.Webster 1 (0) 0-0 2. TOTALS: 11 (4) 4-10 38.