Lady Rockets ride hot shooting in defeating West Greene
Jefferson-Morgan's Kala Yorku hits the deck fighting for a loose ball with West Greene's Emily Courtwright during Thursday's game at Jefferson-Morgan.
West Greene's Alyssa Raber works to create some space during Thursday's game at Jefferson-Morgan.
Jefferson-Morgan's Kala Yorku dribbles the ball down court between West Greene's Emily Courtwright (24) and Alyssa Raber (30) during Thursday's game at Jefferson-Morgan.
JEFFERSON — In a pivotal match-up in Section 3-A, the Jefferson-Morgan girls basketball was able to ride its hot shooting in the first half and hold onto the lead in the second half, in a 53-47 win over West Greene Thursday night.
“I’m extremely proud of our team,” J-M coach Ellen Hildebrand said. “We have finally come together and got over the hump after some close games in this section. We are starting to take care of the ball and value every possession. They made all of the adjustments in the second half and played great, team ball at the end.”
The Lady Rockets (6-8, 2-3) were led by the consistent shooting of its two freshmen, Kayla Yorko and Ally Bogden. Yorko finished the night with 21 points and five 3-pointers, while Bogden added 16 points.
Despite an effect press and a solid defensive effort from the Lady Pioneers (8-7, 1-4), the visitors couldn’t get a steady flow on offense and are currently on a four-game slide.
“They shot the ball well from the outside,” West Greene coach Jordan Watson said. “Our press got to them at times, but the reality is, they had a couple of hot shooters make shots and we couldn’t guard them. Give them all the credit; they made all of the big shots.”
After West Greene took a 4-2 lead early on, J-M rallied with 10 consecutive points on two treys from Yorko and baskets from Bogden and Rachel Hildebrand.
Madison Raber, who had a game-high 22 points and 16 rebounds for the Lady Pioneers, collected the final three points of the opening quarter, as West Greene trailed 16-10 at the end of one. Alyssa Raber also tallied 12 points and pulled down 13 boards.
In the second stanza, Yorko and Bogden garnered early 3-pointers in the quarter to stretch the Lady Rockets lead to 22-15.
“Both Yorko and Bogden stepped up tonight,” Coach Hildebrand said. “At times they didn’t look like freshmen out there and they have both continued to improve. Hopefully this game will give them confidence and they can feed off of that in the second half of the section schedule.”
The Lady Pioneers went on an 8-0 run to grab its first lead of the game, but the home team ended the first half on a 6-4 spree and held a 28-27 lead at intermission.
West Greene continued to pressure the ball and cut the lead down to a single possession, but J-M responded with points and stops for their own. J-M carried a 39-35 lead into the final eight minutes.
J-M only made one basket in the fourth quarter, a three by Yorko, but was aided by a solid effort on the free throw line, shooting 61 percent (11-of-18) from the charity stripe.
“We played a full 32 minutes tonight,” Coach Hildebrand said. “We did all the little things and these kids played together and trusted each other. It was a big game for both teams within the section. It’s always about us and how we execute.”
The closest West Greene got to tying the contest in the fourth was at after Emily Stoll hit two of three from the foul line to make it 44-39 with 5:43 left.
“Offensively, we like to work off of our press and get some transition hoops,” Watson said. “We ran into some foul trouble in the second half, and that limit our aggressiveness. Our offense suffered because of that, and we had no consistent threat from the outside.”