Lady Rockets lift off in third quarter; defeat Lady 'Cats
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
MOWRYSTOWN — The Whiteoak Lady Wildcats kept their Southern Hills League game close for the first two quarters, but an 18-2 run by the Lady Rockets of Fayetteville put the game out of reach, giving WHS their fifth loss of the season by a score of 76-41 Thursday at Whiteoak High School.
Headed into the start of the second half, the Lady 'Cats trailed by just 10 points (31-21), but as close as they played in the first half, it was the Lady Rockets (3-0, 4-0) who came out recharged, and it showed in the third eight-minute frame.
The game-changing quarter started with a three-point play by Makayla Rosselot, followed with a jumper by Desiree Dutro. Dutro finished with 22 points.
"We just had too many turnovers. Fayetteville's press, a nice diamond, they're tall. Shelby (Sheets) does a real nice job at the top, and we didn't do a very good job of moving the ball around," WHS head coach Mike Cooper said. "We stayed in it, played a little triangle and two defense, and for the most part, made other people hit shots.
"They have a couple nice players, and tonight we were going to make someone (besides Sheets) else beat us, and Dutro had a nice game. We wanted to make someone else beat us, and they did, so you have to tip your cap to them. We have to keep coming out and working."
Whiteoak's Brooke Burns answered with a turn-around inside bucket, but after those two points, it was 13 straight scored by the Lady Rockets, who are the defending Division II SHL champions.
Dutro came back with four straight points, followed with Shelby Sheets (a 1,000-plus point scorer) putting the Lady Rockets up 42-23 off a turnover by the Lady 'Cats. The run was completed with points by Rosselot, Dutro and a 3-pointer from Megan Eyre to put Fayetteville up by 26 points.
Whiteoak's Kari Fannin put an end to the run with a 3-pointer of her own, wrapping up the game with eight points. Haley Bingamon made a 3-pointer for WHS in the third. Bingamon, who scored 23 points earlier this season against Eastern Brown (seven 3-pointers), finished with six points Thursday. For the season, Bingamon has tallied 52 points.
But it was too late for WHS, with the third frame ending in favor of Fayetteville, 57-32.
That wasn't the story in the first half for Whiteoak.
"We haven't been playing well in the first half, and tonight we executed in the half-court set. We wanted to work the ball down to Brooke," Cooper said. "I thought she could be a force, and she did a really good job for us. The foul trouble hurt us, and when she wasn't in the game, we had trouble making shots."
In the first half of their previous two games (against Eastern Brown and North Adams), WHS was outscored 89-38, but against Fayetteville, they started to show improvement in the opening 16 minutes.
Burns was the first to score in the game with two quick inside baskets. Burns scored the first four WHS points, followed with Lizz Carson adding two points to put WHS up 6-4 early on. Sheets tied the game at six, scoring five of the first six Fayetteville points. Sheets led all scorers with a game-high 25. Sheets was 12-of-13 from the free-throw line, making her first 11 attempts.
Though WHS trailed by 11 after the first, Burns continued to score for WHS, finishing the first half with 14. For the game, Burns had 18 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. Burns had a double block at the 2:33 mark of the second, swatting the shot attempt back to the Fayetteville player, then sending the ball out of bounds on the second block.
In the final frame, Jessie Gilliland, Fannin, Carson and Burns scored for WHS.
"Without a doubt, we are improving," Cooper said. "The girls are working hard. We've been focusing on defense the past couple days, and when you give up 76 points, you may not think we played well defensively, but we are playing better than we were two weeks ago. We've had a rough schedule starting out, but our goal is to get better as the season goes on.
"These girls are being asked to do things they haven't been asked to do a whole lot of. We are learning to sit down and guard people, and hopefully by the end of the season we'll get there."
The loss drops WHS to 0-3, 0-5 on the season. Fayetteville jumps to 3-0 in the SHL and 4-0 overall.
WHS will get some time to regroup, not playing again until next Thursday when they travel to Manchester. Fayetteville will play at Williamsburg on Dec. 13.