West Union’s Nina McCann (10) is surrounded by New Boston defenders in the land in fourth quarter action from the Lady Dragons’ season-opening loss on November 19. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

West Union’s Nina McCann (10) is surrounded by New Boston defenders in the land in fourth quarter action from the Lady Dragons’ season-opening loss on November 19. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Coach Bernie Cropper and his West Union Lady Dragons opened their season on Saturday, November 19, facing the New Boston Lady Tigers in the Manchester Tip-Off Classic. The young Lady Dragons made a game of it for a half, leading for the first 13 minutes, but then falling victim to some dead-eye New Boston outside shooting as the Lady Tigers outscored West Union 34-17 in the second half to run way with a 60-38 victory.

“We’re a very young and inexperienced team and I thought it showed today,” said Coach Cropper after the loss. “They did some things defensively and we didn’t respond very well. Give New Boston credit, they shot the ball well and have some kinds who can play the game a little bit.”

Things looked good early for the Lady Dragons as they scored the game’s first seven points, a steal and score by Kenzie Stout, an Olivia Lewis three-pointer and a bucket in transition bucket by Shelbi Weakley. The Lady Tigers came off the mat to score the next six and a later Paige Tolle gave West Union a 10-6 advantage. With under a minute to go in the first period and the Lady Dragons up 12-8, New Boston fave fans an omen of what was to come as a three-point goal by Arenda Gosselin cut the West Union lead to one.

The Lady Dragons maintained the lead through a good portion of the second quarter, before a basket by Dylan O’Rourke gave New Boston its first lead at 18-16 with 3:15 left in the first half. A bucket by Lewis tied the score and two free throws by the Lady Tigers’ Cadence Williams gave the lead back to her team. New Boston stretched the lead to 24-19 with 1:15 to go in the half and a driving score by Ashlah Staten pulled West Union to within three but the final score of the half belonged to Williams to send New Boston to the halftime break with a 26-21 advantage.

The game took a major turn for the worse for the Lady Dragons after the intermission as they only mustered three points in the third quarter, while the Lady Tigers were warming up from long distance. A pair of three-pointers from Gosselin and another from Cassie Williams propelled New Boston to a double digit lead, 37-24 after three quarters.

The Lady Tigers onslaught continued into the fourth quarter as the West Union defense had no luck in slowing down their opponent. A three-pointer from Gosselin stretched the New Boston lead out to 48-30 and the only offensive highlight of the period for the Lady Dragons was a three-ball from Payton Stapleton that only sliced the deficit to 50-36 with 2:45 left in the game. The final quarter belonged to New Boston’s Cadence Williams, who scored 14 of her game-high 20 in the period.

“We still just have a lot to learn,” added Coach Cropper. “We had trouble executing offensively today and we just seemed to stand around a lot and we need a lot more aggressiveness on defense. First game, young team, we’ll learn from it, continue to work and hopefully get better.”

The biggest lead of the contest for New Boston, 22 points, came after another Cassie Williams trey and remained there as a pair of free throws from West Union’s Emily Stapleton left the final on the scoreboard at 60-38 in favor of the Lady Tigers.

As mentioned, Cadence Williams led the winners with 20 points, joined in double figures by teammates Arenda Gosselin with 15, Dylan O’Rourke with 14 and Cassie Williams with 11 as the quarter combined for all of the New Boston points in the game.

For West Union, Ashlah Staten led scorers with 14 points, with Payton Stapleton adding 9 and Olivia Lewis 7.

The road got no easier for the Lady Dragons as they opened up the Southern Hills Athletic Conference portion of their schedule with a trip to Lynchburg on Monday, November 21 to face the preseason favorite Lady Mustangs. (The results of that game were not available by press time.)

BOX SCORE

New Boston

11 15 11 23 —60

West Union

12 9 3 14 —38

New Boston (60): Gosselin 5 0-0 15, Cadence Williams 8 3-5 20, O’Rourke 4 6-6 14, Cassie Williams 3 4-4 11, Team 20 13-15 60.

W. Union (38): E. Stapleton 0 2-2 2, Staten 5 4-8, McCann 0 0-4 0, P. Stapleton 4 0-0 9, stout 1 0-0 2, Lewis 3 0-0 7, Weakley 1 0-2 2, Tolle 1 0-0 2, 15 6-16 38.

Three-Point Goals:

New Boston (7)- Gosselin 5, Cadence Williams 1, Cassie Williams 1

W. Union (2)- P. Stapleton 1, Lewis 1