Hinton – Behind a revitalized half court offense Wyoming East seems to have caught its second wind heading into the back half of the season.
The Lady Warriors forced 35 turnovers toppling Summers County 60-36 in Hinton Thursday.
Despite a week off due to school closures and snowstorms, the Lady Warriors continued to build upon last week’s win over No. 4 Logan, shooting 41 percent (27-for-66) from the field and 50 percent from inside the arc (24-for-48). It all led to a controlled offense.
“What I’ve always tried to do, the first half of the season is about defense, conditioning and watching how we move,” East head coach Ryan Davidson said. “The second half of the season turns into way more specific in what we do, especially offensively. So we’re working at it. We’re spending more time – the kids are starting to trust it which is huge. If they don’t trust what you’re doing it’s not going to matter anyway.”
For Summers the loss was another encapsulation of its recent struggles – turnovers, poor shooting percentage and more.
“We turn the ball over with nobody around,” Summers head coach Doug Trail said. “We just don’t want to handle the ball. I thought Carly (Persinger), I thought she did okay and she didn’t get a lot of help bringing it up. And that’s a good sign because she never really did that before. We also got killed on the boards again. So turnovers and rebounding are the story of this season.
“I told them on the radio, you turn the ball over 35 times, on just two-point field goals that’s 70 points. That is a lot of freaking points that you’re just not even getting an opportunity. We had 33 shots and 35 turnovers.”
The defensive performance was vintage one from East which won three of the last five Class AA titles on the strength of its defense and ability to force turnovers. The Lady Warriors held Summers to 11 points combined in the first and this quarters. Thursday’s showing blended their defensive identity with a new one the Lady Warriors are hoping to utilize as they contend for a spot in the state tournament.
“For us it’s almost always going to have to start on defense,” Davidson said. “That what it’s always been. But now they’re starting to understand how hard you have to play all the time and what we expect all the time. They hear me constantly yelling all the time, ‘Get up the floor, get up the floor,’ but they’re starting to figure it out and we’ve got some kids that are starting to figure it out. Reagan (Bower), Coley Tolliver, Kyleigh Martin – they’re getting more time because they’re doing the right thing and it’s helping us a lot.”
East led wire to wire Thursday, striking first on a Kyndal Lusk layup and later expanding its lead to 7-2 following when she nailed a 3.
A pair of Abi Baker layups and later a floater from Martin put the Warriors ahead 15-5. When the dust settled East held an 18-7 advantage after a frame, never seeing its advantage drop below eight points the rest of the way.
The Lady Bobcats hit the point of no return in the third quarter. Trailing 34-23, they yielded a 3 to Rylee Brown, part of a 9-0 run to close the third quarter as they watched a manageable game get away from them as they trialed 43-23 heading into the final quarter.
East led by atleast 20 throughout the remainder of the game.
“I had to call timeout with 14 seconds to go in the third quarter because we were dead,” Trail said. “I mean we couldn’t even get the ball inbounds. I think I called two timeouts in the first four minutes, I don’t know. It’s just frustrating. You can talk about being young all you want to. I’m tired of that. Sooner or later you’ve got to grow up and fix some of your mistakes and try to get better. There’s three weeks until the (regional) tournament starts.”
Baker led East and all scorers with 19 points while Coley Tolliver (10) and Martin (12) joined her in double figures.
Jaelynn Boone led Summers with 13 points.
Wyoming East
Abi Baker 19, Kyndal Lusk 9, Rylee Brown 8, Reagan Bower 2, Coley Tolliver 10, Kyleigh Martin 12
Summers County
Lynnzie Farley 8, Jaelynn Boone 13, Elite Meadows 6, Carly Persinger 5, Hadley Bennett 3, Jersey Gruskevich 1
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