By Mark Carpenter-
Coach J.R. Kirker and his West Union Lady Dragons opened their 2018-19 season on Saturday, Dec. 1, going out of conference to host the Northwest Lady Mohawks in a contest that turned out to be one of the more exciting battles of the season’s first week. The two sides went back and forth for 32 minutes before some free throws down the stretch allowed the visitors to escape the Dragon’s Lair with a hard-fought 53-52 victory.
“Northwest is a scrappy ball club and you can’t take anything away from them:, said Coach Kirker after the game. “They’re lengthy and athletic and we are short and athletic and we can’t give team the opportunities like we gave them today. I’m pretty proud of our girls, this team beat us by 30 last year and they beat us by one today.”
The Saturday afternoon game began with the Lady Dragons busting out of the gate and doing their damage from long distance as Kiersten Rowe hit a pair of three-point shots and McKenzie Kirker added another and a steal and layup by Mackenzie Bickett gave the home team a 13-6 advantage, but that didn’t last long. Some confusion on the back side of the West Union press allowed Northwest’s Val Eury to get loose to the tune of her scoring the first quarter’s final 11 points as the Lady Mohawks rallied to lead by four after eight minutes.
Northwest made it 15 consecutive points on their side of the scoreboard by getting the first two baskets of the second stanza, both by Keirah Potts, and the Lady Dragons finally broke a five-minute scoring drought with a basket by Harley Silvia that began an 11-0 run by the home team as the momentum shifted. The final nine points of that run came in exciting fashion back-to-back-to-back three-pointers by the Rowe sisters, Kiersten and Lexie, and Silvia and the Lady Dragons were back in front 24-21.
The ebb and flow continued as the Lady Mohawks rallied, going on a 10-5 run to close the first half and take a slim 31-29 lead into the halftime break.
That lead evaporated one minute into the second half when another Silvia trey gave the lead back to West Union, and another trey, this time from Bickett, gave the home side a 35-32 lead. The West Union margin stayed at three points later in the third when Silvia drilled another trey and a stick back by Bickett ended the third quarter with the Lady Dragons still in front 41-38.
That set up a thrilling final eight minutes with two evenly-matched teams starving to pick up the “W”, and the Lady Mohawks struck first, going on a 7-1 run to start the fourth and grab a 45-42 lead. The home team fought back, getting a three-point goal and a free throw from Bickett to tie the game at 47 apiece with 1:58 to play.
With 50 seconds left, Eury sank a pair of free throws to put Northwest back on top and after the Lady Dragons misfired on a three-point attempt, they were forced to start fouling and one of two from the stripe by Ava Jenkins gave the Lady Mohawks a three-point lead with 17.2 seconds left on the clock. Silvia drew a foul with 8.6 left and hit both shots to make it 50-49 and again Jenkins was fouled and again she hit one of two from the line, but when she missed the second the rebound caromed out of bounds off of West Union’s Kiersten Rowe, giving possession back to the visitors.
Jenkins again was sent to the line and hot both shots with 4.4 seconds left to give her team a 53-49 lead and though Bickett drained a long three-pointer at the buzzer, it was one point too short as the Lady Dragons dropped a tough season opener by a final count of 53-52.
In the loss, West Union placed three girls in double figures, Harley Silvia and Mackenzie Bickett leading the way with 16 each, while Kiersten Rowe added 12, all from beyond the arc. In fact, the Lady Dragons fired in a dozen three-pointers and still came up a point short.
“Our girls couldn’t make a layup today, so we shot a lot of threes,” said Coach Kirker. “We’re going to take 25 three-pointers a game and I think we just rushed some of those shots late in the game and I felt like we didn’t sit down and guard anyone today, we hacked and reached and they dictated too much what we did on defense. We only turned the ball over 13 times and I’ll take that every day.”
Eury led the winners with 19 points, followed by 15 from Potts. Ironically, the Lady Mohawks did not make a single three-point try in the game.
The West Union girls were back in action on Monday, Dec. 3, falling 54-33 to Eastern Brown in their first Southern Hills Athletic Conference outing of the season. On Thursday, Dec, 6 the Lady Dragons will be back on their home court, hosting Ripley in conference play.
Northwest
17 14 7 15 —53
West Union
13 16 12 11 —52
Northwest (53): Webb 1 0-0 2, Eury 6 7-13 19, Patty 3 0-0 6, S. Jenkins 0 1-2 1, Potts 7 1-2 15, A. Jenkins 1 4-6 6, Montgomery 1 2-4 4, Team 19 15-27 53.
W. Union (52): L. Rowe 1 1-3 4, Silvia 5 3-4 16, Baldwin 0 1-2 1, Bickett 6 1-2 16, Kirker 1 0-0 3, K. Rowe 4 0-0 12, Team 17 6-11 52.
Three-Point Goals:
W. Union (12)- L. Rowe 1, Silvia 3, Bickett 3, Kirker 1, K. Rowe 4
