After finishing up the first half of Frontier Athletic Conference play on Saturday, Dec. 23 against Miami Trace, the Washington Lady Lions (5-6, 3-2 in the FAC) were at home against Whiteoak (8-2, 5-0 in the SHAC) in a non-conference basketball contest.

Coming into the game, the Lady Lions were averaging 39.7 points per game while the Wildcats were averaging 45.6 points per game.

A strong defensive performance from Washington propelled them to a 37-33 victory, holding Whiteoak more than 12 points below their season average.

A long two from Lady Lion junior Maggi Wall got them on the board just moments into the contest. A jumper from sophomore Calee Ellars had Washington up 4-0 soon after.

Whiteoak responded with a layup, and then Wall knocked down a three at the other end to make it 7-4.

After a jumper from the Wildcats, Ellars connected on a three of her own to get the lead back to six points. This rounded out the first quarter scoring as it was 10-6 after one.

Whiteoak made a free throw for the first point of the second quarter, and then Lady Lion sophomore Eliana Racine responded with a layup to make it 12-7.

A three-point play by the Wildcats had them within two, but Racine ended that quickly with a mid-range jumper at the other end.

A reverse layup by Whiteoak was followed by a layup from Wall to keep the lead at four points. The final made field goal of the quarter was a three from Racine, giving Washington a 19-12 halftime lead.

The Wildcats began the second half on a 5-0 run before it was ended with a mid-range jumper from Racine.

Two Whiteoak free throws had them down two, but another mid-range jumper from Racine got it back to four.

For the third straight sequence, two points from Whiteoak were answered with a mid-range jumper from Racine to keep the lead at four points.

Back-to-back layups from the Wildcats tied it at 25 late in the half, before Washington regained the lead on a three from Racine, her ninth point of the quarter. The Lady Lions took the 28-25 lead into the final period.

Picking up where she left off, Racine knocked down a mid-range jumper for the first points of the fourth quarter.

A three and a put back bucket from the Wildcats tied the game at 30 with 4:43 remaining in the contest.

Washington regained the lead with a free throw from Racine, and then a three from Whiteoak with 2:52 left gave them their first lead of the game.

The next four points came from Washington senior Calleigh Wead-Salmi, all at the free throw line. This gave the Lady Lions a 35-33 lead with just 1:40 to go.

After getting a defensive stop, Washington looked to make a long pass to Racine that went long. She sprinted after the ball and made the save before going out of bounds, finding senior Kaithlyn Maquiling under the basket for the layup and a two possession lead.

With 35 seconds remaining, Whiteoak had several shot attempts that were unsuccessful, and Washington was able to secure a rebound with 2.4 seconds remaining. The Lady Lions were able to run out the rest of the clock to secure the home victory.

Statistically for Washington, Eliana Racine led all scorers with 19 points and secured eight rebounds, followed by Maggi Wall with seven points and three rebounds, Calee Ellars with five points and two rebounds, Calleigh Wead-Salmi with four points and four rebounds, and Kaithlyn Maquiling with two points and one rebounds.

Lady Lion head coach John Denen shared some comments following the win.

“I thought our kids battled. We talk about grit a lot and we gritted it out tonight. We only had a couple days to prepare for them, and we have a kid out for the rest of the year, so we had to make some quick adjustments. I think that’s one of the best things we did, we made some in-game adjustments tonight.”

He spoke about the big performance from Racine.

“We put her at the high post where she could work, and she got the ball and squared up to the hoop and made things happen. It wasn’t one of those games where we run a lot of patterns, it was just basketball. Whiteoak makes you play that way with all of the pressure they put on you.”

Denen mentioned that the team will be taking advantage of the 10-day break before their next game.

“We haven’t had many days off, so we are gonna take a few here. We will get back to work on January 2nd and start preparing for KIPP and Zane Trace. Hopefully the break will allow a couple of our kids to get healthy, that will help us out too.”

Washington (6-6, 3-2 in the FAC) will compete again on Saturday, Jan. 6 at KIPP.

Whiteoak (8-3, 5-0 in the SHAC) is back in action on Thursday, Jan. 4 at home against Peebles.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

WCH 10 9 9 9 — 37

WHIT 6 6 13 8 — 33

WASHINGTON — Kaithlyn Maquiling 1-0-2; Maggi Wall 2 (1)-0-7; Calleigh Wead-Salmi 0-4-4; Eliana Racine 6 (2)-1-19; Trinity George 0-0-0; Calee Ellars 1 (1)-0-5; Lilly Shaw 0-0-0. TOTALS — 10 (4)-5-37. Free throw shooting: 5 of 8 for 63 percent. Three-point field goals: Racine 2, Wall, Ellars. Turnovers 15. Rebounds 21 (2 offensive).

WHITEOAK — Molly McMullen 0-0-0; Kelsey Montieth 0-0-0; Brianna Hill 0-0-0; Kylee Hamm 1 (1)-0-5; Lydia Carr 4-1-9; Addy Roberts 1-3-5; Jaylie Parr 3 (1)-0-9; Torie Potts 2-1-5; Madison Thompson 0-0-0. TOTALS — 11 (2)-5-33. Free throw shooting: 5 of 11 for 45 percent. Three-point field goals: Hamm, Parr. Turnovers 16. Rebounds 21 (9 offensive).

Lady Lion j-v falls to Whiteoak

In the j-v contest, Washington lost to Whiteoak by a score of 33-21

Statistically for the Lady Lions, Jordyn Gray, Khalia Smith, and Jada Ryan each led with six points, followed by Iyanna Brown with two and Lydia Mootispaw with one.