After playing Chillicothe in a stand-off for 3 quarters, the Wilmington High School girls basketball team had an offensive drought to start the fourth quarter and fell to the Lady Cavaliers 64-58 in South Central Ohio League action Saturday night at Fred Summers Court.
Chillicothe improves to 6-4 overall and a 4-3 in the SCOL.
Wilmington falls below the .500 mark at 4-5 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
“The girls played hard,” said WHS coach Mark Short. “I can’t fault them for their effort, but, at times, we made some bad decisions and committed too many fouls. You can’t keep sending them (Chillicothe) to the line because sooner or later they’re gonna make them, or if we don’t box-out they’ll get the offensive rebound on us.”
The Lady Hurricane held a 16-14 lead after the opening period. Wilmington trailed 32-29 at halftime, but an 18-11 surge in the third period enabled WHS to regain the lead, 47-46, heading into the final period of action. The game was tied four times (36-all, 43-45 and 46) during the third period of play.
Unfortunately, the momentum quickly shifted to the visitors and Chillicothe’s Osh Brown scored a pair of baskets, putting the Lady Cavs in front, 50-47. Wilmington never regained the lead, but pulled within a bucket at 60-58 with 1:25 to play.
WHS had an opportunity to tie the game or take the lead, but turned it over. WHS committed 7 turnovers in the final period.
Chillicothe had several opportunities to put the game away, however poor free throw shooting by the Lady Cavs kept the door slightly open for Wilmington’s potential come from behind victory.
Chillicothe converted 15 of 33 free throws, including 6 of 14 in the final period.
Wilmington converted much better from the free throw line than in recent games (17 of 22 attempts). WHS converted 11 of 14 chances in the first half, but shot only 7 free throws during the second half.
“We just quit trying to attack the basket and wanted to settle for outside shots in that final period,” said Short. “And they just weren’t falling. Our free throw shooting is getting better as we hit 77 per cent. We just did not create enough opportunities for us to try and cash in.”
It was a physical contest, as WHS was called for 28 personal fouls and Chillicothe 20. Three Lady ’Cane players, Kate Jamiel, Faith Sanderson and Sara Quallen, fouled out.
Wilmington committed 21 turnovers. Chillicothe turned the ball over 18 times.
CHS sophomore Shawnee Smith led all scorers with 24 points including 13 in the second half. Senior Jasmine Jordan added 14 points and Brown added 12 points, including 7 in the final period.
For Wilmington, Mya Jackson had 16 points (8 in each half), while Leah Frisco followed with 14 points (all in the first 3 quarters) while Suzannah Johns added 13, including a pair of 3-pointers. Tanner Stewart came off the bench to add a pair of field goals in the third quarter.
SUMMARY
Dec 19, 2015
@Fred Summers Court
Chillicothe 64 Wilmington 58
C 14.18.14.18…..64
W 16.13.18.11…..58
(64) CHILLICOTHE (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Cousins 0-0-1-1, Shawnee Smith 9-0-6-24, Shawna Smith 0-1-0-3, Devlin 0-1-1-4, Shawntel Smith 0-0-2-2, Brown 4-0-4-12, Jordan 5-1-1-14, May 2-0-0-4. TOTALS 20-3-15-64.
(58) WILMINGTON (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Jackson 5-0-6-16, S. Johns 2-2-3-13, Quallen 2-0-2-6, Sanderson 1-1-0-5, Stewart 2-0-0-4, Frisco 4-0-6-14, Jamiel 0-0-0-0, J. Johns 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 16-3-17-58.
