Peebles’ Payton Johnson (23) fights her way to the basket as the Lady Indians battled Eastern Brown on January 5. Johnson fired in 29 points but the Lady Indians dropped a 58-50 decision on the road. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Johnson scores 29, but Peebles falls short 58-50
Peebles sophomore Abigail Smalley had a 19-point night, including five three-pointers, in the Lady Indians’ loss at Eastern Brown on January 5. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles’ Angel Gray (40) looks to find a way around the defense of Eastern Brown’s Sarah Clark (42). (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Eastern’s Rylee Leonard (12) lines up a three-point shot as part of her 35-point effort as here team knocked off Peebles, 58-50. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
Peebles’ Rylee Barr (3) gets off a jump shot in action from the Lady Indians’ January 5 loss at Eastern Brown. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
A pair of teams playing pretty good basketball recently matched up on Thursday, January 5 at Eastern Brown High School as the host Lady Warriors, winners of five straight, entertained the Peebles Lady Indians, winners of three of their last four outings. Thursday night’s action was tight in the beginning until the Lady Warriors pulled away to post a double digit lead at the half, only to see the visiting Peebles squad put together a furious fourth quarter rally that fell just short in the end, as the home team hung on to claim the Southern Hills Athletic Conference victory by a final count of 58-50.
Thursday was a showcase for the two top leading scorers in the SHAC, Eastern senior Rylee Leonard and Peebles junior Payton Johnson. Leonard is stalking the school’s all-time scoring record and likely picked that up in a Monday night game with Manchester, while Johnson recently passed the 1,000 point mark for her career. In the match up on Thursday, Leonard had an incredible 27-point first half and finished the game with 35, while Johnson scored 19 in the first two quarters, ran into some foul trouble, and still finished with 29.
“This league is a challenge every night, you better come ready to play,” said Eastern head coach Kevin Pickerill in his postgame radio interview. “You always have to keep making adjustments and that’s fun for the coaches and the kids. I thought we played a great first half and then got a little stagnant the second half and credit Peebles for that.”
The Lady Warriors produced the first attack in last week’s contest, jumping to a 7-2 advantage after the first of Leonard’s first of five three-pointers in the game. The Lady Indians rallied with a pair of Abigail Smalley free tosses and a drive and score by Johnson to make it 7-6 at the 1:45 mark of the opening period.
A bucket inside by Eastern’s Sarah Clark pushed the home team back up by three, a lead that quickly evaporated when Smalley hit the first of her five treys in the game to tie the score. A free throw by Eastern’s Tabby Schumaker left the home team up one after one.
The second stanza started well for the home side as a pair of Leonard threes sandwiched around a basket from Taylor Smith capped a 9-0 run and gave the Lady Warriors an 18-9 lead. Leonard dialed long distance again moments later to make it 21-11 and the lead stayed around that margin until the Lady Indians pulled within seven on an old-fashioned “and one” from Johnson that m made it 25-18.
A later pair of Johnson free throws kept Peebles within 28-20, but Leonard was the story of the final two minutes of the half, hitting yet another three-ball, then adding a perfect 6 for 6 from the stripe, where she is nearly automatic, and by the halftime break, the Lady Warriors had extended their lead out to 37-24.
As the third quarter progressed, it looked as if the Lady Warriors were going to maintain control and their double-digit lead. With 2:22 left in the third, a Smalley three-pointer cut the Eastern lead to 43-31 but the final bucket of the quarter belonged to the home side as did a seemingly comfortable 45-31 lead as the final period began.
Whatever Peebles head coach Sidney Pell said to her team in the pre-fourth quarter huddle was magic as her team came out on fire, going on a 10-0 run, sparked by back-to-back three-pointers from Smalley, quickly cutting the Eastern lead down to just four points. The Lady Warriors answered with five straight, but another Smalley triple sliced the Peebles deficit back to 50-44.
The Lady Indians kept chipping away and with 1:07 to play, two free throws from Johnson got them within 53-30, but those turned out to be the final Peebles points of the evening. In the game’s final minute, Leonard hit three more from the charity stripe and got an easy layup off a Peebles turnover to account for the final points in a 58-50 triumph for the Lady Warriors.
As mentioned, most of the scoring was handled by two girls, but the game may have also been a breakout varsity game for Peebles sophomore Abigail Smalley, who scored a career-high 19 for the Lady Indians. For Eastern Brown, Sarah Clark also hit double figures with 12 points as the Lady Warriors improved to 15-2 on the year, 7-2 in conference play.
The loss dropped Peebles to 7-6 overall, 4-4 in conference action. The Peebles girls then saw their record slip to the .500 mark at 7-7 on Saturday when they dropped a 52-36 road decision to a very solid Portsmouth West squad. The Lady Indians were back in SHAC action on Monday, January 9 when they faced a tough conference road trip to Fairfield, then will host Adena in a non-conference ti oltn Wednesday, January 11.
With 17 games already under their belt, the Lady Warriors were in SHAC play on January 9, hosting one-win Manchester.
