Lady ’Cats earn 21-point win over Lady Lions

Lady ’Cats earn 21-point win over Lady Lions

By STEPHEN FORSHA
The Highland County Press

LEESBURG — Holding the lead after each quarter, it was a dominating second frame that put the Whiteoak Lady Wildcats in the driver’s seat, as they traveled to Leesburg and returned home with a Southern Hills Athletic Conference victory over the host Fairfield Lady Lions by a 57-36 score on Monday night.

The Lady ’Cats changed the complexion of the game in the second quarter, as they entered the frame with an 11-10 lead but ended the second frame and entered halftime with a 31-13 advantage, outscoring Fairfield 20-3 in the quarter.

"We told them that the energy needed to be ramped up from the beginning," Whiteoak interim head coach Cole Schaefer said. "It was a little slow coming out of the fourth quarter, but I was happy with the effort from the first quarter on. I think when we played at the best of our ability, you saw what kind of happened tonight."

Whiteoak’s Addy Hauke began the scoring in the second with a layup with 6:52 on the clock, and after a 3-pointer from Fairfield’s Jaeden Drury with the clock reading 5:27 left in the second, the rest of the quarter scoring belonged to WHS as they went on an 18-0 run to end the quarter.

"The difference in the game was that second quarter there," Fairfield head coach Jennifer Blue said. "We got outscored 20-3, and we’ve just got to quit having those quarters and those spurts where we do that. That was really, basically, the difference in the game."

The Lady ’Cats next had three free throws from Jillian Lucas, followed by a basket by Addison Roberts and two more free throws made by Lucas for a 20-13 Whiteoak advantage with 3:12 left in the second.

Next was a basket by Charli Hauke, followed by a basket by Kylee Hamm, a layup from Roberts, a jumper from Torie Potts and a 3-pointer from Addy Hauke for the 31-13 lead.

"The girls are tremendous to coach," Schaefer said. "I thought we got some good minutes from Torie Potts and Charli Hauke, maybe two people that don't stand out in the scorebook as often as they should, but their defense and their energy really is infectious to the entire team.

"Jada Combs came in, played great minutes. Addison Roberts, Addy Hauke, all of the rest of the crew that comes along, they gave a tremendous effort, and it showed on the scoreboard."

Before the dominant second frame, the most competitive quarter was the first, with Fairfield starting the game with a bucket by Meri Jackson, only to be answered with a 3-pointer by Addy Hauke. Jackson came back with two more points, but WHS was right there waiting to answer with a basket by Roberts.

Jackson scored her sixth point of the quarter with another basket, followed by a 3-pointer from Fairfield teammate Rilee Quickle, then came another free throw by Jackson for a 10-5 Fairfield lead with 3:53 left in the opening frame.

Next was a basket from Hamm of WHS, and the Lady ’Cats ended the quarter with a put-back basket and two made free throws by Lucas.

Each team scored 14 points in the third quarter, with Whiteoak’s points coming from Jada Combs with a free throw, two points by Charli Hauke, 10 points by Addy Hauke (including two 3-pointers) and a free throw made by Potts.

Fairfield in the third frame saw their 14 points scored by Isabelle Hale with two 3-pointers, a 3-pointer by Quickle and five points from Jackson.

The Lady Lions in the fourth quarter scored nine points, with three points scored by Paisley Stahlhut, four points by Quickle and two points from Jackson.

"They don’t give up," Blue said. "They come out and they keep battling. Our goal is always to win every half. We’ve just got to put two halves together here, and then we'll be OK. We can get the one half. We’ve just got to get the two halves.

"We're just trying to grow and cut down on our turnovers, but tonight we got hurt on boxing out too. It's just the fundamental stuff that the girls have to realize. They just have to have confidence in their shots and their abilities. That's just what we're working on, just everybody having confidence in everything."

WHS added 12 points in the final quarter as Hamm scored two points, Lucas also scored two points, Roberts tacked on four points, and also with four points was Potts.

Addy Hauke led WHS with 18 points, while next was next was Lucas with 11 points. The game also saw final scoring totals for WHS include Roberts (10), Potts (seven), Hamm (six), Charli Hauke (four) and Combs (one).

Potts had 10 rebounds for the game, while Roberts and Lucas each also collected eight rebounds.

Fairfield’s leading scorer was Jackson with 14 points, followed by Quickle (10), Hale (six), Drury (three) and Stahlhut (three).

The loss sends FHS to 0-5 overall and 0-2 in the SHAC. WHS improves to 3-1 overall with the same record in SHAC play.

Next for WHS is a home game Saturday, Dec. 14 vs. Ripley.

"We’re ready to play," Schaefer said. "We’ve got a good week of practice ahead of us. We have Ripley on Saturday there, and then we go into Bethel and Clinton-Massie, and then we move into the Princeton Holiday Tournament the 27th and 28th where we play two very good girls programs, Lutheran East out of Cleveland, and St. Ursula Academy out of Cincinnati. We're ready for the challenge."

Fairfield is scheduled to play again Thursday, Dec. 12 on the road at Ripley.

BOX SCORE
WHS    11 20 14 12 — 57
FHS    10 03 14 09 — 36

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