By CHARLIE HUST
The last time the Lady Trojans faced University Heights Academy in the Regional tournament was two years ago and the Lady Blazers ended a incredible season for WCHS with a come-from-behind, upset victory in the semi-finals.
But Monday night, Parker McCalister received a very nice ‘birthday gift’ from his Lady Trojans as they earned a bit of revenge topping UHA 62-50 in the opening round of the Second Region Tournament in Rocket Arena at Crittenden County High School in Marion.
University Heights, the Eighth District champs, had already defeated Webster twice in regular-season play, but that wasn’t the case Monday as the WC girls held off a fourth quarter rally to earn a trip to the Regional semi-finals Friday against Hopkins County Central. The Lady Storm dominated Lyon County 61-44 in Monday’s first game of the Regional Tournament.
Webster put four players in double figures in Monday’s victory, led by 16 points from Hannah Pritchett. The senior guard drilled a pair of 3-pointers midway through the third quarter and added an ‘old-fashioned’ 3-point play to give the Lady Trojans a 20-point lead, 44-24.
But the Lady Blazers came storming back with a three long-range bombs of their own and used a 9-1 run to cut the gap to 12. Webster responded with buckets from Kaylee Duncan and Hallie Gibson to close out the quarter at 48-33.
Some sloppy ball handling and errant passes from the Lady Trojans opened the door for another rally by UHA to begin the fourth quarter, led by four points each from Le’Onzerrea Grubbs and Marenzi Hamby.
Heights senior Demayla Holmes then drilled a 3-pointer after one of Webster’s 24 turnovers on the night and the Lady Blazers had clawed their way back into the game trailing by just six points, 52-46 with 3:02 left in the contest.
Webster sliced through the UHA press on its next possession and sophomore guard Kaylee Duncan looked to have a wide-open layup. Hamby swatted the shot away but was whistled for a foul on the play. Grubbs didn’t like the call and she was assessed a technical foul.
Duncan, who had just missed the front end of a bonus free throw, confidently stepped to the line and sank four straight free throws to stretch the WCHS lead to 56-46 with 2:21 remaining.
The took the ‘wind out of the sails’ of the Lady Blazers as they could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Webster took its first lead of the game at the 3:15 mark of the first quarter on a 3-pointer from Pritchett. That lead grew to 17-12 at the end of the first stanza and the Lady Trojans never trailed from that point on, including a 31-20 halftime lead.
Duncan finished with 13 points, including 6-of-8 at the charity stripe. She also had 11 rebounds and four assists. Hallie Gibson added 12 points, including three straight buckets to open the second quarter when the Lady Trojans began to pull away.
Kristen Keeney contributed her 16th double-double of the season, 10 points and 13 rebounds, despite limited action because of foul trouble. Kelsey Payne added six points while Christian Papineau finished with two points and five rebounds. Fellow senior Jala Woolfolk added two points and three boards.
Webster County 45
Henderson County 63
In order to beat the third-rank team in the state, you had better take care of the basketball and limit your turnovers.
That certainly wasn’t the case Thursday night in the championship game of the 6th District Tournament at Henderson County High School.
The Lady Colonels forced 26 WCHS turnovers, including 12 in the first quarter to breeze to the district title, their eighth straight. It also ended a 10-game winning streak by Webster County.
“It really doesn’t matter how you guard them or what kind of offense you run, if you don’t take care of the basketball you’re certainly not going to beat them (Henderson),” noted WCHS head coach Parker McCalister.
The Lady Colonels delivered the ‘knock-out’ punch within the first eight minutes of the game, using eight Webster turnovers to spark 15-4 run to begin the game.
Webster closed the gap to 24-16 at the end of the opening quarter on a pair of baskets from freshman guard Kelsey Payne. She led the Lady Trojans with 13 points.
But the powerful Henderson squad used an 18-6 blitz in the second quarter to gain a 39-24 lead at intermission.
Henderson also did an outstanding defensive job on 6-foot-2 center Kristen Keeney, limiting her to a season-low five points and seven rebounds.
The Lady Colonels continued rolling in the third quarter, using a 9-0 run to start the period and building a 48-24 lead midway through the stanza.
Despite the huge deficit, the Lady Trojans continued to fight a mounted a comeback bid with a 11-4 run sparked by baskets from Hallie Gibson, Hannah Pritchett, Kaylee Duncan and Payne to trim the lead to 17 points as Henderson just edged the Lady Trojans 24-21 in the final two quarters.
Ice-cold free throw shooting also hampered WCHS, managing just 12-of-23 for the game while connecting on just 1-of-7 attempts from behind the 3-point arc.
Gibson finished with eight points while Duncan and Pritchett added six points apiece. Keeney and Jala Woolfolk added five points each while Christian Papineau scored two points and pulled down seven rebounds.
• Webster was well-represented on the All-District squad, based on regular-season play. Kristen Keeney, Kaylee Duncan and Hannah Pritchett were selected to the squad. Ashton Reed was named All-District cheerleader.
Sixth District All-Academic honors (3.5 GPA or higher) went to Pritchett, Duncan, Kristen Keeney, Christian Papineau, Kelsey Payne, Jessica Winders, Jamie Winstead, Kassandra Hinton.