Lady Indians get road win at Whiteoak

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Two of the top girls basketball squads in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference met on the hardwood at Whiteoak High School on January 4 as the host Lady Wildcats put their perfect conference mark on the line with the Peebles Lady Indians, a team looking to stay in the SHAC big school race.

Whiteoak is notoriously one of the toughest venues for opponents and for one night, the Peebles girls paid no mind to that as they took a double digit first quarter lea, battled later foul trouble, hit their free throws down the stretch and pulled away for a 57-39 victory. The visiting Lady Indians hot 22 of 36 free throws in the win while the host Lady Cats went an improbable 0-22 from beyond the three-point line and never led in the loss.

“We knew coming in that Whiteoak was very rough and physical team,” said Peebles head coach Sidney Pell in her postgame radio chat. “We knew we would get their best game and they would play hard and it would be loud but I thought we handled it all pretty well for the most part. We were focused and locked in early and that made the difference.”

The game was tied at 4 early but a free throw by Peebles’ Caydence Carroll gave the Lady Indians a lead they never gave up. Carroll’s free toss was the beginning of a big 11-0 run by the Lady Indians, fueled by a three-point goal from Payton Johnson and an old-fashioned three-point play after a steal by Angel Gray. That gave the guests a 15-4 advantage before Whiteoak’s Kylee Hamm got the “and one” pf her own to close the gap. A three-point play from Johnson again extending the Peebles lead but buckets by Molly McMullen and Addy Roberts pulled the Lady Cats within 18-11 after one.

The Lady Indians exploded out of the second quarter gate with an 8-0 run, getting a pair of Abigail Smalley three-pointers sandwiched around a Payton Johnson coast-to-coast drive. to go up 26-11. Coach Pell’s squad then went into along scoring drought but fortunately for them, the Lady Cats couldn’t but a basket on their home court. The Lady Indians finally broke their ice with a Carroll basket with 60 seconds left in the first half and that helped send her team to the halftime intermission with a 28-17 lead.

The Lady Cars may have gained a little energy from the break as they opened the second half on a 6-2 run to close their deficit to 30-23, but the Lady Indians answered with a Lydia Maddox three-ball at the 4:15 mark. After two consecutive baskets by the home team that got them closer than they had been since the first quarter, trailing 33-27, the Lady Indians responded with a 6-0 spurt that included a Johnson trey but the senior guard also picked up her fourth foul with 53.2 seconds left in the period, a period that ended with Peebles on top 41-27.

Over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, the Lady Indians may have learned something about themselves as they ventured into unfamiliar territory with their leader on the bench with the aforementioned four fouls. With a golden opportunity to make up ground as the final period progressed, the Lady Cats continued to struggle from the field, but after the home team forced three and got consecutive buckets from Jaylie Parr and Brianna Hill that made it 45-35, Coach Pell got Johnson back into the game with 3:07 left and that turned out to be a profitable move down the stretch.

“Payton spent more time on the bench than she has in a long time,” said Coach Pell. “We told her at halftime that she carries us a lot of times but but tonight we had her back. We played through the stretch to makes ure Payton was in there to finish the game.”

The stretch run began with Johnson getting a three-point play and over the final two minutes, the Lady Indians sewed it up from the free throw line, getting four from Johnson, two from Abigail Smalley and another trio from Carroll to pull away and post a big SHAC road win, by the final count of 57-39.

The victorious Lady Indians were led by 22 points from Payton Johnson, who went 8-14 from the foul line. Caydence Carroll had a big game in the paint, adding 16 points while sharpshooter Abigail Smalley scored 10.

Kylee Hamm led Whiteoak (8-4,5-1 SHAC) with 18 points.

Peebles improved to 802 overall and 602 in the conference, remaining one game behind Lynchburg and North Adams in the big school race. The Lady Indians will be back in action on Wednesday, January 10 when they will travel to Green for a non-conference battle and on Saturday will host Southeastern in another non-conference tilt with a noon tip off.

Peebles

18 10 13 16 —57

Whiteoak

11 6 10 12 —39

Peebles (57): Maddox 1 2-4 5, Johnson 6 8-14 22, Abigail Smalley 3 2-2 10, Carroll 4 8-11 16, Gray 1 1-3 3, Unger 0 1-2 1, Team 15 22-36 57.

Whiteoak (39)- Hamm 8 2-3 18, Carr 3 3-4 9, Roberts 1 0-0 2, Parr 3 0-4 6, Hill 1 0-0 2, McMullen 1 0-0 2, Team 17 5-11 39.

Three-Point Goals:

Peebles (5)- Maddox 1, Johnson 2, Abigail Smalley 2