The Washington Lady Blue Lions welcomed the Hurricane from Wilmington High School for the SCOL opener for both teams Tuesday evening.
Washington began the game quite strong, trailed at halftime, but rallied back in the second half to post a 62-51 victory.
Washington had three players (and nearly a fourth) in double figures, led by freshman Hannah Haithcock, who shared game high-scoring honors with Wilmington freshman Mya Jackson, each with 19 points.
Senior Alexis Gray scored 15 for Washington and senior Jaycie McRoberts had 10 points.
Washington senior Wendy Hawk scored nine points.
Wilmington sophomore Leah Frisco scored 16 points and fellow sophomore Katlyn Jamiel had six points.
“I was very concerned about Wilmington,” Washington head coach John Persinger said. “I scouted them once. I think they have two of the quickest guards, No. 5 (Mya Jackson) and No. 22 (Faith Sanderson). They are lightning quick.
“We played zone,” Persinger said. “I’m not crazy about the zone, but, it’s working for us right now.
“We had a great start,” Persinger said. “Our biggies got in foul trouble. We had some kids out of position and we kind of fell apart in the second quarter.
“But, we collected ourselves,” Persinger said. “The girls who were in foul trouble stayed clean in the second half. Wilmington didn’t hit their threes. I think they were just off.
“I’m very happy with this win,” Persinger said. “It’s a big win, believe it or not.”
“I thought they played really well,” Wilmington head coach Mark Short said of Washington. “We saw them Friday. We knew what they were going to do; we just couldn’t stop what they were going to do.
“We sent them to the line way too many times,” Short said. “Even when we had the lead at halftime, we told them there were some things we needed to do to get them out of the zone, we just didn’t do it.
“We’re young and we’re impatient,” Short said. “We’ve just got a lot of work to do. I can’t fault my kids’ effort. We’re going through a transition and our schedule is a bear.”
Both teams made 17 buckets, with one three-pointer for each team.
However, Washington unofficially shot 17 of 38 for 45 percent to 17 of 56 for Wilmington for 30 percent.
Another deciding factor was foul shooting.
Washington made 27 out of 39 (for 62 percent), while Wilmington converted 14 of 19 (for 74 percent).
Washington had 21 turnovers to 20 for Wilmington.
After the game was tied briefly, 2-2, Washington went on a 12-0 run to take a 14-2 lead with 4:14 to play in the first quarter.
Wilmington began to exert a somewhat smothering defense that would continue over into the second quarter to strong effect.
Washington held a 19-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Due at least somewhat to the intensified defensive effort on the part of Wilmington, Washington saw its turnovers increase from five in the first quarter to seven in the second quarter.
The Lady Lions did not score their first bucket of the second quarter until nearly the mid-way point when Hawk scored to make it a 21-15 game in favor of Washington.
Wilmington got to within three points, but McRoberts scored to make it 24-19, Washington.
Tabby Woods made a pair of free throws for the Lady Lions to make it 26-19, but, the final two-plus minutes of the first half proved beneficial to Wilmington.
Wilmington went on a 10-0 run leading up to halftime, overtaking Washington with a 29-26 intermission tally.
The three-point lead was to be, however, the biggest of the night for Wilmington.
Washington began the second half with an old-fashioned three-point play from Haithcock and, after a pair of free throws from McRoberts, Gray converted a bucket and a free throw that gave Washington a 34-33 lead with 3:35 to play in the third.
Wilmington took what would prove to be its final lead of the game, 38-36, following a pair of free throws from Faith Sanderson. That lead came with 2:39 to play in the third quarter.
Washington held a 40-38 lead at the end of three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, Washington made 10 of 16 free throw attempts, while Wilmington was 0 of 2 from the line.
Washington took the lead for good at 41-40 with a free throw from Hawk with seven minutes to play in the game.
Washington (1-1, 1-0) will host Miami Trace Saturday with the j-v game at noon.
Wilmington (0-2, 0-1) will host Chaminade-Julienne Monday.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
WCH 19 7 14 22 — 62
Wil. 11 18 9 13 — 51
WASHINGTON — Alexis Gray 4-7-15; Jaycie McRoberts 2-6-10; Savannah Wallace 0-0-0; Hannah Haithcock 7-5-19; Wendy Hawk 1 (1)-4-9; Kassidy Hines 0-0-0; Tabby Woods 1-2-4; Maddy Jenkins 1-3-5. TOTALS — 16 (1)-27-62. Free throw shooting: 27 of 39 for 69 percent. Field goal shooting: 17 of 38 for 45 percent. Turnovers: 21.
WILMINGTON — Je’Taysia Johns 0-0-0; Mya Jackson 6-7-19; Suzannah Johns 0-0-0; Sarah Quallen 1-0-2; Faith Sanderson 0 (1)-2-5; Katlyn Jamiel 3-0-6; Heather Fryman 0-0-0; Emily Edingfield 1-0-2; Tanner Stewart 0-1-1; Leah Frisco 6-4-16. TOTALS — 16 (1)-14-51. Free throw shooting: 14 of 19 for 74 percent. Field goal shooting: 17 of 56 for 30 percent. Turnovers: 20.
In the j-v game Tuesday, Washington beat Wilmington, 39-14.
Breanna Taylor led Washington with 11 points. Raven Haithcock was next with eight points.
Tiara Harris led Wilmington with five points. Heather Fryman was next in scoring with four points for the Hurricane.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
WCH 10 6 14 9 — 39
Wil. 2 3 5 4 — 14
WASHINGTON — Raven Haithcock 3-2-8; Maddy Garrison 1-0-2; Breanna Taylor 5-1-11; Savanna Davis 1-1-3; Megan Downing 1-0-2; Victoria Jones 0-0-0; Tahja Pettiford 1-0-2; Ally Funari 1 (1)-0-5; Delaney Greer 2-0-4; Taylor Smith 1-0-2. TOTALS — 16 (1)-4-39. Free throw shooting: 4 of 10 for 40 percent.
WILMINGTON — Tiara Harris 2-1-5; Sydney Shumaker 0-2-2; Brooklyn Nielsen 1-1-3; Sarah Quallen 0-0-0; Aahlaysia Walker 0-0-0; Heather Fryman 2-0-4; Sydney Walker 0-0-0; Tanner Stewart 0-0-0. TOTALS — 5-4-14. Free throw shooting: 4 of 10 for 40 percent.
