James Beeland’s seven 3-pointers gave him 23 points for
Westfield’s basketball Hornets Tuesday at home. Head coach Jake Walls, however,
could point to one thing and one thing only – defense – for Westfield’s
hard-fought 54-52 non-region victory against the Tiftarea Panthers.
The Panthers of Chula had 40 seconds to look for a tying –
or even a game-winning – basket. Thanks to the continued foul-shooting troubles
of the Hornets, Tiftarea had more than one chance to make it a longer, or even
a depressing, night for the home club.
Giles Amos, a freshman forward off Walls’ bench, rebounded
the first Panther attempt with 18 seconds remaining in regulation. As would be
expected, the visiting team fouled, and it was a strategy that did more than
stop the clock. Westfield missed free throws for the 12th and 13thtime in the game, and the Panthers called time to set things up for the last
nine seconds.
From the defensive perspective, Walls’ group kept the basketball
from going to guard Rob Frick, who led all scorers Tuesday with 24 points.
Instead, it was a Panther player who had just checked into the action when a
starter fouled out taking a shot the bench most likely did not want.
Amos was the only other Hornet in double figures with 11
points. As a team, Westfield made 10 foul shots.
The game as a whole, though, was about the Hornets taking a
lead big enough to withstand spurts from Tiftarea. This scenario played itself
out time and again, especially in the second half.
At the start, the Hornets were down by four when they
stopped the Panthers defensively for four possessions in a row. All they could
get on the other end, though, were three made free throws. Tanner Westbrook’s
steal accounted for a fifth straight stop against Tiftarea, but the offense was
still searching for a first successful shot from the floor.
Amos checked into the action as the visiting Panthers
finally put their own points on the board. Among Westfield’s struggles to
score, Beeland was 0-for-3 from the 3-point arc.
On the offensive boards, Amos was fouled, and so was point
guard Barrett Stanley on an aggressive steal. Each one, though, was 1-for-2 at
the line. The defense kept coming from an Amos steal, and Westbrook staked the
Hornets to a lead at 2:35 (7-6).
The Amos factor, as the opening quarter closed, gave
Westfield a shot block and a post basket from Stanley’s feed. The freshman went
1-for-2 on a foul-line trip from an offensive rebound at 8.4 seconds. The
Panthers pushed on the missed attempt for a lay-up that put the score at 10-8.
At 6:02 of the second quarter, Beeland made his first trey
on a corner shot, one set up by Micah Moore’s block on the defensive half. Amos
started the quarter on the bench, but once Walls inserted him in he put back a
second shot for 20-11 Westfield.
Beeland was 2-of-4 in 3s, and substitute Reece Hickox
contributed a long rebound and push ahead to Moore for a 24-16 edge at the
half.
Westfield began both the third and fourth quarters strong,
Westbrook opening the second half with his own 3-point make. In a span of about
ninety seconds, Beeland sank three 3-pointers, but Tiftarea always had an
answer to stay in the game.
At the three-minute mark, the Panthers used a press takeaway
for a three-point play. A half-court unforced turnover for Westfield followed,
and Frick went to the corner to sink a 3 and slice the lead down to five,
36-31.
The margin was five, 38-33, as the fourth period began.
Stanley bounced the basketball beautifully inside to Amos in a 6-2 run for the
Hornets. Beeland also scored 3 from the top of the key, but Tiftarea fired off
seven straight on its defensive strengths.
Leading now 44-42, Westfield got points from starting center
Wade Forrester when he recovered the Panther block against Westbrook. With a
quick defensive stop, Beeland stuck one more 3 for 49-42.
As Tiftarea made its ensuing run, Amos rebounded Stanley’s
missed jumper and kicked the ball back to his point guard. Stanley connected
the second time for 52-49 with 1:20 left. The Hornets were only 2-for-6 at the
line in these last seconds, and Frick received a late whistle on a 3 trey. All
of his shots went in, but the visitors never could get in front.
LADY HORNETS ROLL
More impressive number for the six-game winning streak by
Westfield’s girls on the basketball court: the average scoring of 74 points a
game, the opponents’ average of 34 per game, or the average winning margin of
40? (Consider that in the streak was a four-point win at Arlington Christian)
The latest victim for the hot Lady Hornets was Tiftarea
Tuesday at home. Even though head coach Cass Cassell had his frustrated moments
with how his team handled full-court pressure, it didn’t stop four Westfield
players from scoring double figures in a 77-39 final.
McKinley Walton, behind a big 3-point shooting game, had 18.
Right behind her was point guard Callie Hammerle with 17 points and a sack-load
of steals. In the frontcourt, Valerie McLure scored 13 and Sydney Ledford 11.
Ledford blocked a shot and stole the ball while converting a
lob pass in the post from Walton in Westfied’s 19-9 opening quarter. McLure ran
the floor to score off steals by herself, Hammerle and Walton. Hammerle alone
stole the ball four times in these eight minutes.
Tiftarea, at 5:18, ended Westfield’s opening 7-0 run. It was
Chelsea Whaley coming off the bench for a steal and score for 13-4. The
visitors then banked in a jumper and forced a turnover, prompting Cassell to
urge his girls to finish the quarter. It was McLure taking Walton’s steal and
doing a move similar to Julius Erving.
It took Westfield several tries to break a drought in the
second quarter, but Hammerle took Ledford’s rebound and received a kind bounce.
She had two such bounces on consecutive shots, and then Walton unleashed two
straight 3-point bombs.
The Lady Panthers brought out the full-court trap, and to
ease their coach’s growing angst Hammerle, Walton and Ledford kept the
basketball off the floor, broke the press and led 34-17. The hosts put in
basket after basket inside to go into the half up 41-19.
Walton and Katlyn Moseley stroked 3s to begin the third
period. Hammerle stole the ball five more times in this quarter and fed McLure
on an inbounds play for 49-24. But what they really needed was a 30-point lead,
and with 1.1 seconds McLure called for it while standing outside the line. She
connected (60-30), so the fourth quarter only lasted six minutes.
Daes Barker got into the steal-and-score act, and Hannah
Kate Jones earned a transition assist to Jackie Bard.
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