WILMINGTON — When Washington met Wilmington back in early December for a South Central Ohio League girls basketball game, it was a victory for the Lady Blue Lions, 62-51.
This time, it was the Lady Hurricane who came out on top, 52-36, Wednesday night at Fred Summers Court.
The victory puts Wilmington at 7-6, while the Lady Blue Lions fall to 6-8. In the SCOL, Wilmington evens its record at 4-4 while WCH slips to 3-6.
For the second straight game, Washington was held under 40 points, also losing out to Fayette County rival Miami Trace, 37-34, on Saturday.
Mya Jackson led Wilmington with 23 points. She had 12 in the first half and nine in the final period.
For Washington, top scorer was Savanna Wallace with 11 points, including a trio of three-pointers. Hannah Haithcock scored nine points, all coming in the middle two quarters of play. Alexis Gray added eight points for WCH.
“Wilmington simply outplayed us tonight. It was a very physical game and they adapted to it. We could not match up well with them,” Lady Lions coach John Persinger said after the contest. “In my opinion, they (Wilmington) have improved over 100 per cent since we met them first time around and coach (Mark) Short really has them playing well and their physicality just gave us problems.”
Both teams struggled offensively in the early-going and, in a low scoring first quarter, Wilmington took an 8-7 lead. The second period was a different story, however, and Wilmington could not have written a better script from an offensive approach, reeling off 23 points en route to a 10-point cushion at halftime, 31-21.
“We really got it going in that second quarter and we settled down in our offensive sets. Our movement was good and we took it inside the paint. Mya (Jackson) and Faith (Sanderson) got some big buckets for us. I felt as bad as we played in the first quarter, they really turned it around in the second period,” said Short.
The third period seemed to mirror the first quarter, as Washington claimed a 7-6 margin, cutting Wilmington’s lead to 37-28. The Lady ‘Cane reeled off six unanswered points in the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 43-28 and Washington was unable to get things going offensively, scoring just eight points as Wilmington posted the victory.
Short said containing Haithcock was the difference this time around. She scored 19 in the first meeting.
“The girls did a great job on her defensively,” Short said. “We held her to just five points in the second half and none in the last period. We talked about shutting her down at halftime and the girls responded.”
When looking over the final numbers in the scorebook, Short made note of something which really pleased him and the coaching staff — several players in the scoring column.
“I really like the fact we had eight different players get in the scorebook tonight. More importantly, everybody on the floor contributed. It was a good team effort for us tonight,” the Lady Hurricane head coach said.
SUMMARY
Jan 6, 2016
@Fred Summers Court
Wilmington 52 Washington 36
WA 07.14.07.08…..36
WI 08.23.06.15…..52
(36) WASHINGTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Haithcock 2-1-2-9, Wallace 1-3-0-11, Woods 0-0-1-1, Smith 1-0-0-2, Jenkins 0-0-2-2, Hawk 1-0-1-3, Gray 2-0-4-6. TOTALS 7-4-10-36.
(52) WILMINGTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Jackson 11-0-1-23, J. Johns 1-0-0-2, S. Johns 3-0-0-6, Sanderson 4-0-1-9. Jamiel 1-0-1-3, Edingfield 1-0-0-2, Stewart 2-0-0-4, Frisco 0-0-3-3. TOTALS 23-0-6-52.
