West Union junior Payton Stapleton tallied 10 points for the Lady Dragons as they defeated New Boston 76-50 in the Manchester Tip-Off Classic on November 20. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

West Union junior Payton Stapleton tallied 10 points for the Lady Dragons as they defeated New Boston 76-50 in the Manchester Tip-Off Classic on November 20. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

<p>Peebles’ Natalee Workman looks for some room in the paint as the Lady Indians battled Portsmouth West on Saturday in the Tip-Off Classic. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)</p>

Peebles’ Natalee Workman looks for some room in the paint as the Lady Indians battled Portsmouth West on Saturday in the Tip-Off Classic. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

<p>Using her right arm to try to create some space from a Coal Grove defender, Manchester’s Madison Dunn heads down the court in the Lady Hounds’ regular season opener, (Photo by Mark Carpenter)</p>

Using her right arm to try to create some space from a Coal Grove defender, Manchester’s Madison Dunn heads down the court in the Lady Hounds’ regular season opener, (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

The 2021-22 girls basketball regular season kicked off on Saturday, November 20 and three squads from Adams County opened up at Manchester High School as the Lady Hounds hosted the Tip-Off Classic, a full day of ladies hoops, with the final three games involving the West Union Lady Dragons, the Peebles Lady Indians and the host Lady Hounds. Of the three, only the West Union girls were able to open their season successfully, as both Peebles and Manchester suffered season-opening losses.

WEST UNION 76 NEW BOSTON 50

Saturday was an impressive opening day effort for the West Union Lady Dragons and their new head coach, Bernie Cropper. Cropper, a seasoned veteran in the varsity coaching ranks, saw his team lead wire-to-wire and place five girls in double figures as they handled the New Boston Lady Tigers by a final count of 76-50.

“”We did a good job in transition getting some easy baskets,” said Coach Cropper after the win. “Our girls are quick and unselfish and they share the ball well so we’re happy. We also shot the ball very well today.”

The Lady Dragons got off to a good start in Saturday’s win, racing to a quick 10-2 lead and keeping that advantage at 15-8 after the first quarter. After a New Boston three-pointer opened the second period, the Lady Dragons made a statement with a big 12-0 run, fueled by a pair of Payton Stapleton buckets, giving them a commanding 27-11 lead. A pair of hoops by senior Lexie Rowe helped West Union build a 22-17 halftime advantage.

The Lady Dragons’ offense continued to click as the second half began with an 8-2 West Union run that pushed the lead out to 41-19. As the third quarter progressed, the Lady Dragons got a nice transition layup from Madison Taylor and then three baskets from freshman Olivia Lewis to lead 55-32 after three.

It was cruise control for West Union for the final eight minutesas a Taylor three-pointer made it 60-37. The freshman Lewis showed no fear in her varsity debut as she drained two shots from behind the arc in the fourth quarter as the Lady Dragons finished off an impressive opening 26-point triumph.

A team can win a lot of games when they put five players in double figures as West Union did, led by 20 points from Lexie Rowe. Olivia Lewis added 14, with Madison Taylor adding 11, and Ashlah Staten and Payton Stapleton scoring 10 each. Senior Molly Purcell also contributed 7 points to the winning effort.

“Olivia (Lewis) has really improved and she shoots the ball well and her hard work is paying off for sure,” said Cropper. “Lexie (Rowe) plays hard on both ends of the floor and makes everyone around her better the way she shares the ball and she has the ability to create shots for herself.”

New Boston

8 9 15 18 —50

West Union

15 18 22 21 —76

New Boston (50): Voiers 4 0-0 9, Cadence Williams 6 2-2 18, Whitley 6 3-4 16, O’Rourke 1 0-0 2, Boyer 1 0-0 3, Cassie Williams 1 0-0 2, Team 19 5-6 50.

W. Union (76): Taylor 5 0-1 11, Staten 4 2-2 10, Purcell 3 1-3 7, Stapleton 4 2-2 10, Boldman 2 0-0 4, Lewis 6 0-1 14, Rowe 7 6-8 20, Team 31 11-19 76.

Three-Point Goals:

New Boston (7); Voiers 1, Cadence Williams 4, Whitley 1, Boyer 1

W. Union (3)- Taylor 1, Lewis 2

PORTSMOUTH WEST 59 PEEBLES 41

Saturday also marked another girls coaching debut in the county as Sidney Pell made her first regular season appearance as the leader of the Peebles Lady Indians, but her day didn’t quite go as she hoped. The Lady Indians faced off in the Tip-Off Classic with one of the top squads in southeast Ohio in the Portsmouth West Lady Senators, and a miserable first half spelled doom for the Peebles girls as the trailed from start to finish in falling to the Lady Senators, 59-41.

Whether it was first game nerves or jitters of perhaps a smothering West defense, the Lady Indians played the first half with a “deer in the headlights” look. Uncharacteristically, the Peebles girls committed 17 first half turnovers, allowing the Lady Senators to build what turned out to be an insurmountable lead.

“Portsmouth West is a good team,” said Coach Pell in her postgame radio interview. “They were ready for us, they shot the ball well, but I think we could compete with them. It just wasn’t our night tonight.”

West scored the game’s first five points and never looked back. It took nearly two minutes for the Lady Indians to get on the board on a Payton Johnson basket, but West took advantage of the Peebles miscues to take a 20-7 lead as the first period ended.

To make things worse, the Lady Senators opened the second quarter on an 11-0 run, holding Peebles scoreless for five minutes and pushing the lead out to 31-7. Peebles got a three-pointer from McKenzie Morrison in the second stanza but still trailed big at halftime, 39-16.

Give the Peebles squad some credit, however, as they turned a forgettable first half into a much better second half effort. The first 10 points of the third quarter went on the Lady Indians’ side of the scoreboard, seven of those coming from the sophomore Johnson. That cut the West lead to 39-26 and woke up the Peebles crowd with hopes of a miracle comeback. The Lady Senators did not make a field goal the entire third quarter, getting only two late free throws to lead 41-26 after three.

In the first minute of the fourth quarter the Lady Senators scored five quick points to cushion their lead but a two-pointer by Morrison and a three from Johnson again gave hope to the Peebles side as they pulled back to within 45-31. After a West bucket, Morrison struck again, first with a nice reverse layup and then with a layup in transition to cut the margin down to 47-35. But 12 points was as close as the Lady Indians would get as the Lady Senators held on to win their opener by the final count of 59-41.

“Our girls never gave up,”added Coach Pell. “We had a great third quarter, played much better defensue, but we need to have that from the jump. We’ll figure it out and bounce back.”

A lot of Peebles success this season will depend on their guard duo of Johnson and Morrison and those two combined on Saturday for 38 of the team’s 41 points, Johnson with 20 and Morrison with 18.

P. West

20 19 2 18 —59

Peebles

7 9 10 15 —41

P. West (59): Howell 14, Andre 2, Adkins 13, Cline 7, McDermott 8, Sayre 10, Deaver 4

Peebles (41): Moore 2, Nichols 1, Morrison 18, Johnson 20

COAL GROVE 57 MANCHESTER 17

The final match up of the Tip-Off Classic saw the host Manchester Lady Hounds facing off with as very tough squad of Coal Grove Lady Hornets, who finished last season at 23-3. There were more debuts on the plate for the final game with first-year head coach Tad Mitchell leading the Lady Hounds and five Manchester freshmen making their first varsity appearances.

It is no secret that the Manchester girls will be in total rebuild mode, and with that will come a lot of growing pains. That certainly was the case on Saturday night as Cola Grove dominated from the opening tip to the final buzzer and coasted to a 57-17 win over the home team.

In the first half, the Lady Hounds struggled to get off good shots and score period, and found themselves staring at a huge 45-4 halftime deficit.

With the big Coal Grove lead, the new OHSAA regular season running clock rule went into effect. Though the Lady Hornets let off the gas in the second half, the Lady Hounds did perform much better, tripling their first half offensive output, getting a three-point goal from freshman Raegan Wikoff, who led Manchester with 5 points, and cutting the final score to a much more respectable 57-17.

“We’ve got to rebuild and get there quickly and the girls know that but this was not the game to start off with in a rebuild season,” sad Coach Mitchell. “They had so much firepower returning and it’s challenging, but we’ll get better and move on. We had a team back out late and Coal Grove ended up as the replacement. The girls will learn from tonight.”

Coal Grove (57):Fraley 6, Holmes 14, K. Deeds 5, Noel 4, Murphy 6, Hicks 16, Harmon 2, Keaton 2, Collins 2

Manchester (17): A. Dunn 4, Wikoff 5, Mitchell 4, Arnett 2, Morgan 2