It was a game that went all the way down to the wire Monday night as the Whiteoak Lady ‘Cats hosted the Fairfield Lady Lions. It was also a game of runs, as both teams went on spurts throughout the game leading to the 54-49 Whiteoak victory.
The first of the aforementioned runs came at the very begging of the game when Whiteoak scored 13 points to Fairfield’s only two in the first three minutes of play. At the end of the first quarter, the Lady ‘Cats had a eight point lead with a 20-12 score.
In the second quarter, the Lady Lions fought back from the deficit to go up on the Whiteoak squad by two points and led 30-28 going into halftime.
The Lady ‘Cats already knew they could go on a run against their opponent, so to start the second half, they scored eight unanswered points before Fairfield was finally able to make a free throw to stop the run. That free throw started a 6-0 run for Fairfield aided by three points from the line by Grace Shope and a three pointer by Lauren Arnold. But, Whiteoak was able to hold on to the lead they had take matching Fairfield point for point to end the quarter and took a 39-37 lead into the final frame.
In the fourth and final quarter, Whiteoak and Fairfield battled back and forth and neither team was able to make any runs, but the Lady ‘Cats were able to stay ahead and even add to their lead, finishing the game with a 54-49 victory over their Southern Hills Athletic Conference opponents.
“We wrote one word on the board tonight as we left the locker room and it was focus,” said Whiteoak head coach Randy Abbott after the game. “I thought down the stretch tonight we made some mistakes and we made some mental errors, but we’re making less. I feel like us as a team did a better job shooting the ball tonight. I feel like we took better shot selection. We were more disciplined.
We had some adversity tonight because not every call went our way, but in the past, we curl up into a ball when that happens. Tonight, instead, it encouraged us to play harder.
“This was a good win for us. [Fairfield] is a good ball club. I felt like Chad [Hamilton] had them ready.”
“It seems like every time we play [Whiteoak], it’s a close game no matter what the records are,” said Fairfield coach Chad Hamilton. “They came out on fire, we got into a hole and came back but in the end, the executed more than we did. Give them credit. They had a good game plan and they executed it well. They took some of the things that we like to do away from us. We have them again in two weeks and hopefully we’ll remember what we need to do a little better.”
Box:
WHS – 20 8 11 15 – 54
FHS – 12 18 7 12 – 49
Whiteoak: Wardlow 2(1) 10/12 – 17; Harless 1(3) 2/2 – 13; Jones 5 – 10; Parr 3 2/6 – 8; Thompson 1 -/1 – 2; Luman 1 – 2; Carr 2/3 – 2. Totals: 13(4) 16/24 – 54.
Fairfield: Shope 6(1) 8/14 – 23; L. Arnold (3) 1/2 – 10; Huff 1 5/6 – 7; Pauley 2 – 4; C. Arnold (1) – 3; Adams 2/4 – 2; Tale 0/1 – 0. Totals: 9(5) 16/27 – 49.
Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer.
