New Richmond – Westside did almost everything it hoped to do Thursday against rival Wyoming East.
The Renegades out-rebounded the Lady Warriors 59-29 and held them to 31 percent shooting (19-for-61) turning the game into a rock fight.
The thing they couldn’t do? Make enough shots.
Wyoming East turned Westside over 22 times, holding their cross-county rivals to 24 percent shooting (12-for-50) from the floor in a 58-41 victory over the Renegades in New Richmond.
Neither team found a groove offensively for most of the night as evidenced by their respective field goal percentages. Much of that had to do with their own struggles in addition to what amounted to a foul fest with 56 total fouls called, resulting in a combined 71 free throws. Eight different players collected at least four fouls with four fouling out.
That reflected in the opening frame which saw the teams battle to a 9-9 tie while combining to shoot 5-for-32 from the field and 8-for-20 from the line.
“I think a lot of it, there were some nerves and we have some kids playing right now that aren’t used to that kind of atmosphere,” East head coach Ryan Davidson said. “And now on top of it, your second game of the season it kind of lends itself to that type of stuff. And also when you’re taking shots with nobody around you from 20 feet and shooting airballs that kind of works on you mentally. And we told them, ‘You are going to be wide open, our stuff works,’ and we were, wide-open. We just broke a couple backboards in the process.”
After an ugly first quarter, East righted the ship, taking the lead on a Coley Tolliver layup and extending the advantage to four points after another from Abi Baker.
A 3 from Eva Munroe brought the Renegades back to within a point at 13-12 but East found itself, producing one of its best runs of the night. A free throw each from sisters Jami Cox and Abi Baker made it a 15-12 game with a three-point play from Baker extending the lead to 18-12.
With Kyndal Lusk and Rylee Brown joining in, the lead balloon to 10 at 24-14, capping a 10-1 run as the hosts took a 26-15 lead into the half.
“Our biggest thing with East is we can’t turn the ball over,” Westside head coach Jamie Lusk said. “There was a minute or two span before the end of the second quarter where we kept giving the ball to them and turning it over. They’d come down, convert and get some three-point plays. We still battle and I’m proud of these girls. They gave everything they have and I’m tickled to death with our performance tonight.”
East started to pull away early in the third with a 3 from Brown but a pair of buckets from Sarah Lilly and another from Sydney Lusk made it a 29-21 affair. But the hope quickly withered again.
Out of timeout Reagan Bower pushed the lead back to 10 before a Cox 3 made it a 13-point advantage for the Lady Warriors. Westside was able to get it back down to nine points heading into the final frame, using a 13-8 rebounding adavantage in the frame to stay afloat.
“I’ll be honest with you, that was a concern,” Davidson said.”I thought they might do that. They play hard. They play really hard and they pursue the basketball. And they’re sending four to the rim. I thought that would be an issue for us. We’ve got to get back to just being disciplined with that we do. Standing around, getting pushed under the rim instead of making contact. We weren’t making contact with them, they were making contact with us. Stuff we talk about all the time but now we put it on film and we can show it. It’ll probably go a long with a lot of plate pushes in practice.”
A quick 5-0 run to open the fourth quarter with buckets from Lusk and Brown pushed the game out of reach for the Renegades.
It capped a game where both teams walked away feeling they let key opportunities slip away. East finished 17-for-41 from the line while Westside was a smidge better at 16-for-30.
“We’re definitely going to be better than that,” Davidson said. “I don’t know if we’re going to be the strongest foul shooting team in the world but that also comes down to focus and that noise being a little loud and you believing that you’re not going to make it, we’ve got to focus on getting back to you’re good, so go be good. Not thinking you are. I trust these kids and confidence goes a long way.”
Baker led all scorers with 17 points and six steals while Karsynn Paynter led the Renegades with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Sarah Lilly added 18 rebounds.
Westside
Karsyn Paynter 13, Sarah Lilly 7, Paisley Shannon 3, Kaylin Matney 4, Sydney Lusk 2, Khloe Miller 4, Alaina Lester 2, Eva Munroe 3, Ayrl Stewart 3
Wyoming East
Abi Baker 17, Kyndal Lusk 10, Rylee Brown 12, Reagan Bower 7, Coley Tolliver 5, Jami Cox 5, Kyleigh Martin 2
About the Author
