By CHARLIE HUST
It took a pair of clutch, game-winning free throws from senior Darrian McNary with 12.1 seconds remaining in the contest to hand first-year head coach Tonya Wells her first career victory at WCHS, topping her former team Hopkinsville High School 46-45 last Tuesday night in a thrilling season-opener for both squads.
“Whew, what a way to open the season. This was a tough one,” noted Wells, who guided the Lady Tigers to the State Tournament in 2012. “This was a huge game for me, as well as for them (Hopkinsville). They played their hearts out as did my kids. I’m so proud of these young ladies, the way they hung in there despite not playing our best.”
After leading for most of the first half, Webster saw the Lady Tigers claw back and take a 35-33 lead with 31.1 seconds left in the third quarter. That lead held until junior guard Maddy Duncan drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 4.1 left in the period to give Webster a slim 36-35 lead.
Both teams showed signs of early-season jitters, especially in the fourth quarter when the turnovers at both ends began to mount. Both teams had 10 turnovers in the final eight minutes. Butv neither squad could take advantage of their opponents mistakes until Hallie Gibson scored on an offensive rebound and putback with 5:47 left in the fourth quarter giving WC a 38-35 advantage. Hannah Pritchett then turned a bad pass from the Lady Tigers into an easy layup at the other end to stretch the margin to 40-35 and a bit of breathing room.
But Hopkinsville came storming back with five straight points, including a 3-pointer from Jalynn Majors to tie the game at 40-all with 4:01 to go and the back-and-forth contest began.
Gibson grabbed another offensive board and converted the putback for the 42-40 lead and Christian Papineau did the same on Webster’s next trip for a 44-40 advantage with 2:34 remaining.
WCHS then committed back-to-back turnovers that led to a layup from Majors and a 3-pointer from Andreianna Earthman pushing the Lady Tigers on top 45-44 with 1:25 on the clock.
Webster missed the front end of a bonus free throws on its next trip and then couldn’t cash-in on consecutive 3-pointers after a pair of Lady Tiger turnovers. Hopkinsville couldn’t take advantage, missing two free throws and throwing the ball away on an inbounds pass with 22.4 seconds left in the game.
After another missed scoring opportunity by the Lady Trojans, Earthman was fouled with 0:18.7 to go. She missed the front end of the bonus free throw with Papineau clearing the rebound and firing the outlet pass to McNary.
The senior guard sprinted to the other end of the floor but was fouled before she could fire a shot. Stepping to the line with the game on the line, McNary calmly drained both free throws with 12.1 seconds remaining.
Hopkinsville struggled with its next possession and never got a shot off, as the final horn sounded with the ball loose near the free throw line. That set off a tournament-type celebration by the large crowd at Trojan gym.
“I knew they (Hopkinsville) would come in here and play very hard. But I think our depth played a big part in the win, I think we wore them down a bit,” Coach Wells continued. “We’re very lucky to win considering all the turnovers and missed shots. We couldn’t hit a thing in the paint and our passing was just horrible. That’s something we work on every single day in practice. We have a long way to go in both of those departments. But a win is a win and I’m so happy to get my first here at Webster. It was a great atmosphere tonight, the kids played so hard and then you look up and you’ve got your senior guard at the free throw line ready to win the game. That’s what we want and I know Darrian wanted the ball in her hands with the game on the line.”
And McNary, who led the WC girls in scoring with 10 points, was ready for the challenge.
“I wanted the ball, I wanted to take the last shot, it just happened to be at the free throw,” she said with a grin. “We certainly didn’t play our best tonight but we got the win and we can now start building on that. I think this win will give us a lot confidence because we made way too many mistakes and didn’t shoot very well but we still got the victory.”
McNary, just like her head coach, emphasized that poor shooting and turnovers were areas in which to improve.
“We wanted to win so bad for coach tonight and we knew Hopkinsville would come in here and play very hard to try and beat her. I think at times we were just trying to do too much too quickly,” McNary noted. “We have to learn how to relax and just play like I know we can play. We’ll be alright.”
Pritchett finished with eight points in the balanced WCHS scoring attack while Duncan, Gibson, Bailey Townsend and Kristen Keeney all scored six points. Papineau added four points and team-leading nine rebounds.
Webster shot just 27 percent from the field and connected on just 11-of-18 free throws.
The Lady Trojans are back in action Friday night, taking on Paducah Tilghman in the annual Messenger Tip-Off Classic scheduled at Trojan gym. That will be followed another WCHS-Henderson County battle on Dec. 16 in Henderson.