By Mark Carpenter-
No one wants to find themselves in a tournament consolation game because that means your team missed the opportunity to be in a title game, but the games are on the schedule and on Saturday, Dec. 27 at North Adams High School, the Manchester Lady Greyhounds squared off with the West Union Lady Dragons in the girls consolation game of the 2019 Holiday Classic. Both teams were looking to rebound from double digit losses the previous night and pick up a “W” to close out the 2019 portion of the season.
This Saturday night consolation contest was entertaining, at least for one quarter. The underdog Lady Dragons , with sophomore standout Lexie Rowe firing in pair of three-pointers and Christian Shivener adding another, the West Union squad kept things close. But the first period belonged to Manchester’s Brooke Kennedy, who poured in 10 points early to give her team an 18-13 advantage after one stanza.
After putting up 13 in the opening period, the Lady Dragons found offense to be a struggle until the half, only mustering three points in the second quarter, while the hot hand belonged to Manchester sophomore Hannah Hobbs, Hobbs drilled four baskets in the second period as the Lady Hounds extended their advantage by the intermission to 28-16.
In the third quarter, the Lady Hounds continued to spread the wealth, this time the hot hand passed to sharpshooter Emily Sweeney who drained a trio of three-pointers, scoring 11 in the quarter as Manchester outscored the Lady Dragons 18-8 to take a 46-24 lead into the final eight minutes.
That final eight minutes ended up being a parade to the charity stripe as the two teams combined to shoot 17 free throws. Sweeney hit another three for the Lady Hounds while Rowe finished a big scoring night with 11 in the fourth but it was the Lady Hounds who took third place in the Classic with a 64-42 victory, improving their overall record to 6-4 on the season.
In the win, Sweeney led the Lady Hounds with 17 points, joined in double figures by Kennedy and Hobbs with 12 apiece. For her efforts over two nights, Kennedy was named to the All-Classic Team.
Rowe continued to put up big offensive numbers for the Lady Dragons (1-10) as she led all scorers with 25 points and was named to the All-Classic Team.
West Union
13 3 8 18 —42
Manchester
18 10 18 18 —64
W. Union (42): Grooms 0 0-2 0, Taylor 1 0-2 2, Purcell 0 2-2 2, Shivener 3 1-2 8, Rowe 8 6-8 25, Francis 1 0-0 2, Weakley 1 1-2 3, Team 14 10-18 42.
Manchester (64): T. Morrison 3 1-3 7, M. Morrison 2 0-0 4, Mitchell 0 2-2 2, Paul 2 4-6 8, Kennedy 5 2-3 12, Sweeney 6 1-2 17, Lucas 1 0-0 2, Hobbs 5 2-2 12, Team 24 12-18 64.
Three-Point Goals:
W. Union (4)- Shivener 1, Rowe 3
