GREENFIELD — The Washington Lady Blue Lion varsity basketball team visited McClain High School in Greenfield Saturday, Nov. 30 to open the Frontier Athletic Conference’s third season.
The game was close throughout, with McClain pulling out the victory in overtime, 48-44.
Seniors Shawna Conger and Halli Wall led Washington, each with 10 points.
Wall turned in a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds.
Kendall Dye had six rebounds and Conger had four. Conger led the Lady Lions with three assists.
For McClain, Kyla Burchett led the game with 15 points.
Payton Pryor scored 14 and Emma Stegbauer had 11.
Washington stayed with McClain, despite having 23 turnovers.
Kaelin Pfeifer and Natalie Woods each had two steals for Washington.
“The game didn’t fall how we wanted it to, but overall our kids battled the entire night,” Washington head coach Samantha Leach said. “We were able to answer back to everything McClain threw at us and we were able to find an opportunity in almost every situation. Unfortunately, we didn’t execute during those opportunities. We will learn from our mistakes tonight and continue to get better.
“There were a lot of great things that came from tonight,” Leach said. “We had several kids step up and make big plays for us. Aaraylne (Estep) had a huge bucket in overtime; Abby (Tackage) forced a steal, Allie (Mongold) had a big play off the dribble, and Kaelin (Pfeifer) was a huge spark off the bench and was able to put some pressure on the ball for us. It was encouraging to see so many kids be a part of big plays, especially towards the end of the game.
“Halli recorded her first career double-double (10 points, 10 rebounds) and did an outstanding job on the boards for us,” Leach said. “We lost our two leading rebounders from last season and knew that this was an area we needed to focus on. Halli did a great job stepping up and filling that role for us tonight.”
Washington will be at home to play Hillsboro Wednesday. That will be a varsity only game beginning at 6 p.m.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
W 12 6 14 8 4 — 44
Mc 12 8 8 12 8 — 48
WASHINGTON — Allie Mongold 1-0-2; Aaralyne Estep 1-2-4; Kaelin Pfeifer 1 (1)-0-5; Kendall Dye 1-2-4; Jeleeya Tyree-Smith 2-0-4; Abby Tackage 0-0-0; Natalie Woods 2-1-5; Halli Wall 2 (2)-0-10; Shawna Conger 5-0-10. TOTALS — 15 (3)-5-44. Free throw shooting: 5 of 16 for 31 percent. Three-point field goals: Wall, 2; Pfeifer.
McCLAIN — Cierra Bolender 0-0-0; Bri Weller 1-2-4; Payton Pryor 5-4-14; Jaelyn Pitzer 0 (1)-1-4; Josie Crabtree 0-0-0; Kyla Burchett 2 (2)-5-15; Emma Stegbauer 1-9-11. TOTALS — 9 (3)-19-48. Free throw shooting: 19 of 27 for 70 percent. Three-point field goals: Burchett, 2; Pitzer.
