Strong start holds up for Lady Beavers

By Rod Haxton, editor

For three quarters the Scott Community High School girls played outstanding ball against Cimarron.

That was just enough to come away with a 46-40 non-league road win on Tuesday evening.

“We did a lot of good things offensively and defensively for the first three quarters,” says head coach Mark Campos. “We just need to find a way to finish things better in the fourth quarter.”

What had been a comfortable 17 point lead near the end of the third period nearly disappeared behind a fourth quarter rally by the Lady Bluejays. Careless fouls, turnovers and poor shot selection on the part of SCHS contributed to Cimarron’s late scoring run.

“We need to do a better job of making adjustments when the flow of the game changes,” says Campos. “If a team wants to push the tempo for 32 minutes, we have no problem doing that. If they want to slow it down we have no problem with that either. But if they play at one level and then switch, for some reason we have trouble adjusting.

“We did a really good job against Cimarron’s patient style of play for the first three quarters, but when the turned up the defensive intensity in the fourth quarter we forced some things and that allowed them to get back into the game.”

SCHS never trailed in the game, taking control in the second period when they broke open a 12-12 deadlock with a 17-2 scoring blitz. When Emily Hess finished off the scoring run with a basket at the 1:32 mark, the Lady Beavers were holding a comfortable 29-14 lead.

They extended the lead to 17 points, 39-22, following a basket by Audrey Baker with just :32 remaining in the third period.

Cimarron climbed back to within seven points, 43-36, with 1:55 to play before Carissa Chelemedos put the game away with a rebound and putback 40 seconds later that extended the lead back to nine points. Chelemedos was 7-of-10 from the field to finish the night with 15 points.

Justine Woofter had a solid performance with six points, eight rebounds and three steals while Amanda Shearmire added seven points and four assists.

“When the girls are able to run our offense, make cuts to the basket and get the looks we want, we can play with anyone,” Campos says. “We do more to disrupt our offense when the girls try to do too much by forcing passes and getting impatient.”

The Lady Beavers (11-6, 3-3) will face Mid State Activities Association leader TMP (17-1, 7-0) in a road game on Friday. That will be followed by a non-league road game at Atwood on Tuesday.

A win in either game would assure the Lady Beavers of no worse than a No. 3 seed in the Class 4A sub-state tournament and a first round home game. More importantly, it will put SCHS on the opposite of the bracket away from undefeated and top-seeded Cheney.