Lady Lions topple Jackson, 61-46

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The Washington Lady Blue Lions had not played the Jackson Ironladies since they met in the Sectional tournament back a number of years.

Wednesday night, the teams met on the court at Washington High School as opponents in the new Frontier Athletic Conference.

The Lady Lions had a very good offensive night, posting a 61-46 victory.

Washington is now 5-0 overall, 3-0 in the FAC.

Jackson dips to 2-3 overall, 1-2 in the FAC.

Senior Rebekah Green was the game’s leading scorer for Jackson, pouring in 31 points.

Green, who will be continuing her basketball career next year at Ursuline College (near Cleveland), was 10 of 10 from the free throw line.

Senior Mariah Ridgeway scored eight for the Ironladies.

For Washington, junior Hannah Haithcock led with 24 points, despite being double and triple-teamed on the interior. She stepped out and hit one of Washington’s seven three-point field goals.

Junior Bre Taylor hit four three-point field goals on her way to scoring 14 points.

Sophomore Rayana Burns scored eight points and led her team with nine rebounds.

Sophomore Halli Wall came off the bench to score eight points, including hitting a pair of three-point field goals.

Washington head coach Samantha Leach was quick to compliment the play of Green.

“She’s very good, very skilled,” Leach said. “She scored a bunch of points on us tonight. We just had trouble defensively guarding her.

“We’re very excited with getting the win tonight,” Leach said. “However, we have a lot to clean up and a lot of work to do, especially defensively. We really struggled (with Green), giving up way too many points.

“For us, Rayana did a tremendous job on the boards,” Leach said. “She did an awesome job. We did a great job of boxing out tonight. We only gave up three offensive rebounds, so that was huge.

“Offensively, I thought we did really well in transition,” Leach said. “We got out and ran the floor and scored several buckets in transition.”

“We had not had a chance to see them personally,” Jackson head coach Matt Walburn said. “The schedule just hadn’t worked out.

“We’ve come off a couple of tough losses in the last two games,” Walburn said. “One against Hillsboro and another against Reedsville Eastern. We had won our first two games, against River Valley and McClain, so, it felt like we were going backwards.

“I didn’t know what to expect coming in here,” Walburn said. “One thing is, we play hard and we play with a good attitude. Our motto is attitude and effort. Credit to these guys, they’re a heck of a basketball team.

“You got to see what number 4 is all about,” Walburn said, speaking of Green. “She’s a heck of a basketball player.

“We’re walking out of the locker room with our heads up, even though we lost,” Walburn said. “We’re a very inexperienced basketball team. We have six seniors, but they don’t have a lot of experience.

“We fought,” Walburn said. “We cut it to nine two or three times. Number 30 (Hannah Haithcock), what a great player she is. I told her that after the game.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Walburn said. “Both teams played hard. Hats off to them, they’re a great basketball team. I was proud of our kids. We have to get ready, we have Miami Trace coming to town Saturday.”

There were three lead changes in the first three minutes of the game.

After junior Tabby Woods scored for Washington with 4:50 to play in the first quarter, the Lady Lions would not relinquish the lead.

Washington held a 15-11 lead at the end of the first quarter of play.

It wasn’t long before the Lady Lions had extended their lead to double-digits.

Washington twice led by as many as 15 points, including the score at the end of the half, 35-20.

Jackson won the third quarter, outscoring Washington, 19-12.

The Ironladies were able to cut the lead twice to nine points before trailing by eight at the end of the period, 47-39.

After unofficially hitting 14 of 36 shots through the first three quarters of play for 39 percent, Jackson went cold in the fourth quarter, connecting on just one of 10 shots as Washington scored 14 points to seven for the visitors.

Washington maintained a 10-12 point cushion through most of the fourth quarter, until, near the end, when they led by as many as 16 points before a final Jackson free throw set the final tally at 61-46.

Both teams shot very well from the free throw line.

Jackson made 13 of 14 from the charity stripe for 93 percent, while Washington went 5 of 5.

Unofficially, Washington connected on 23 buckets in 46 attempts for 50 percent.

Jackson was 15 of 46 for 33 percent.

Washington will be back in action Saturday at McClain High School in Greenfield with the j-v game starting at 5:30 p.m.

Jackson will host Miami Trace Saturday evening.

The Lady Lions will be at home to take on Unioto Wednesday with the j-v game starting at 5:30 p.m. Many schedules originally had that game being played at Unioto.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

W 15 20 12 14 — 61

J 11 9 19 7 — 46

WASHINGTON — Rayana Burns 4-0-8; Maddy Garrison 0-0-0; Bre Taylor 1 (4)-0-14; Kassidy Hines 0 (1)-0-3; Tabby Woods 1-0-2; Halli Wall 1 (2)-0-8; Maddy Jenkins 1-0-2; Hannah Haithcock 8 (1)-5-24; Cloe Copas 0-0-0; Mallory Hicks 0-0-0. TOTALS — 16 (8)-5-61. Free throw shooting: 5 of 5 for 100 percent. Three-point field goals: Taylor, 4; Wall, 2; Hines, Haithcock. Field goal shooting: 23 of 46 for 50 percent. Turnovers: 14.

JACKSON — Jordan Banks 0-0-0; Rebekah Green 9 (1)-10-31; Gracie Walburn 0-0-0; Mariah Ridgeway 1 (2)-0-8; Raegan Hall 1-0-2; Taylor Evans 0-0-0; Raylene Hammond 0-0-0; Elizabeth Fout 0-0-0; Marley Haynes 1-3-5; Kaitlyn Kight 0-0-0. TOTALS — 12 (3)-13-46. Free throw shooting: 13 of 14 for 93 percent. Three-point field goals: Ridgeway, 2; Green. Field goal shooting: 15 of 46 for 33 percent. Turnovers: 9.

Washington junior Bre Taylor (4) releases the shot during a Frontier Athletic Conference game against Jackson Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017 at Washington High School. Just coming into the frame is Washington junior Maddy Jenkins.
http://www.recordherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2017/12/web1_Bre-Taylor-vs-jackson-12-13-2017.jpgWashington junior Bre Taylor (4) releases the shot during a Frontier Athletic Conference game against Jackson Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017 at Washington High School. Just coming into the frame is Washington junior Maddy Jenkins. Chris Hoppes | Record-Herald

By Chris Hoppes

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