Lady Raiders’ Chandler scores 1,000th point, but Hall leads AG to win
Hall scored a career-high 45 points, rivaled by Chandler’s 31, which included the 1,000th of her career. “People forget that Jocelyn is only a junior,” Malkowiak said. “A junior scoring over 1,000 points says a lot. She did what she could (tonight).”
Chandler became the first Uniontown girl to go over 1,000 points since Becky Oglevee who hit the mark on Dec. 12, 1981, against Brownsville. Chandler’s milestone, a jumper from the right side, gave the Lady Raiders (5-2, 1-1) a 17-16 lead with 54 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
That lead would only last till the midway point of the second quarter when Rachel Karpency scored two of her nine points to give the Lady Colonials a 26-24 lead. Albert Gallatin (5-2, 2-0) benefited from the final lead change of the game in the closing seconds of the half when, who else, Hall scored to two of her 19 first-half points giving the Lady Colonials a 30-29 lead.
That was only a teaser for what Hall had in store for the second half. She scored 26 points down the stretch, mostly on put-backs, as she wore down the Lady Raiders’ frontcourt.
“It’s a matter of containing her, because she is a player that is constantly coming at you,” Malkowiak said. “Sooner or later she’s going to get to you.”
Hall wasn’t even aware she was surpassing her career high, which was formerly 41 points.
“It didn’t feel like I scored that much,” Hall said. “I was pretty much riding on adrenaline. I was so excited (for this game), and the suspense was killing me.”
“It’s amazing how hard she works,” Fleenor said.
“She has a motor that never quits, and that’s a testament to her conditioning. She never stops and eventually you can’t stop her.”
While Hall turned up the intensity in the second half, Chandler lost her scoring punch. She scored 10 second-half points, as her teammates’ field goals tripled just to keep pace.
“We started to make Jocelyn work for her points,” Fleenor said. “We definitely made her earn her points.”
But, according the Malkowiak, the difference down the stretch was the frontcourt play.
“We weren’t physical enough,” she said. “We didn’t do a good job of rebounding, and the weak-side defensive rebounds were just a killer for us. We hung in there early because we were running on adrenaline, but in the fourth quarter my kids just ran out of gas.”
Behind Chandler, Emily Fisher chimed in with 11 points, all of which in the second half, while Sara Kovach and Courtney Sanner were the only other Lady Raiders to score with seven and six points, respectively.
Uniontown drops its first section game, and will travel to Ringgold and Trinity next week.
“I told the kids, it’s not a one-game season,” Malkowiak added. “We can’t sulk and hang our heads.”
Meanwhile, Albert Gallatin is eyeing an unbeaten section mark prior to the Christmas break.
“If we can go 4-0 in the section before Christmas, that would be a huge advantage,” Fleenor added.