Lady Indians’ season ends in tourney opener

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

The story seemed to repeat itself over and over this season for Coach Sidney Pell and her Peebles Lady Indians. Though their final record may not indicate it, the Lady Indians seemed to be in a lot of games that they eventually lost, and that is what happened in their tournament opener, a Division VI district quarterfinal match up on February 13 at Whiteoak.

Going in as an underdog #14 seed to battle the #3 seeded Lady Wildcats, the Lady Indians stayed on upset alert for more than a half, hanging right with the host team blow for blow, but an 11-1 run for the Lady Cats late in the third quarter was the difference as the Peebles girls saw their season come to an end in a 59-47 defeat.

“This season felt like we had a tendency to play to the level of our competition,” said Coach Pell. “We played some good basketball at times and competed with some pretty good teams, just couldn’t quite get over the hump to win some of those games. Tonight was no different, we competed all game and even took the lead for a little in the second half. They hit too many shots down the stretch and it just kinda slipped away slowly in the fourth.”

Last Thursday’s tourney battle began with a lot of sloppiness on both sides, marked by numerous turnovers, perhaps some tournament jitters. Whiteoak opened the scoring with two baskets from Torie Potts, answered by the Lady Indians with an Abigail Smalley three-pointer. The three-point parade continued throughout the remainder of the first stanza, with the Lady Cats hitting three more and Peebles getting a triple from Alyssa Smalley that left her team trailing 15-10 after one.

The three-point pace slowed in the second period and the Lady Indians pulled within 18-16 on back-to-back buckets from freshmen Kendall Myers and Paysen Shiveley. The Lady Cats pushed the lead back out to five with the aid of a three-ball from Addison Roberts but a basket by Angel Gray and free throws from Myers and MaRhea Unger kept the Lady Indians with 24-21 at the halftime break.

Peebles came out of the break on a hot streak, scoring on their first three offensive possessions of the third quarter, with baskets by the Smalley sisters, one by Abigail and two from Alyssa. With 4:33 left in the third, Myers hit the first of two free throws and when she missed the second Gray grabbed the offensive board and banked it home to give the Lady Indians their first and only lead of the game at 30-29.

Losing the lead must have been a wake-up call for the Lady Cats, who proceeded to go on an 11-1 run, led by sophomore Addy Hauke, who accounted for nine of those points, including a pair of three-point goals. That run put Whiteoak up 40-31 and the Lady Indians, though they battled all the way, could not as Coach Pell stated, “get over the hump”.

The fourth quarter began with the Lady Cats up 42-35, a lead that increased to double digits on a putback from Charli Hauke. Another offensive board and score from freshman Jillian Lucas gave Whiteoak a 50-37 advantage but the Lady Indians gave it one more shot, going on a 7-1 run to close the gap to 51-44 with less than two minutes remaining in regulation.

That was to be as close as the visitors were to get as the final eight Whiteoak points came from the free throw line. The final points of the Peebles season came fittingly on a free toss from senior Abigail Smalley as the Lady Indians saw their season end in the 59-47 defeat.

The Lady Cats advanced to play Ripley in the District senifinals on February 18 and they were led in scoring in the win over Peebles by a trio of players in double figures, paced by 15 points from Addy Hauke, with Jillian Lucas adding 14 and Charli Hauke 11. Whiteoak also got 9 points apiece from Torie Potts and Addison Roberts.

In their season finale, the Lady Indians were topped in scoring by 20 points from Kendall Myers, joined in double figures by Alyssa Smalley with 11. The loss was the final high school game for Peebles seniors Abigail Smalley, Lainee Barr, Angel Gray and MaRhea Unger.

Said Coach Pell of her departing group. “This group of four seniors were able to put together a pretty successful four years. two-time sectional champions, 2two-time SHAC champions, Holiday Tournament champions and lots of other wins along the way. Beyond the wins and losses they are overall great kids that all put the work in over the last four years. We are going to miss their personalities, leadership, and overall effort next year as we transition to be a team on the younger/inexperienced side.”

”I thought our younger players developed nicely this year. Kendall Myers really made a name for herself late in the season, dropping 20 points in her first ever tournament game was a great way to cap off her freshman year. Alyssa Smalley and Paysen Shiveley both played a lot of minutes and as a combo did basically all of our ball handling for the year so bringing them both back with more experience is a good feeling. It seemed to be a common compliment after our JV games to have the opposing coach comment something like ‘Wow those girls play really hard’, which is something that will always make a coach’s heart happy. Girls like Kyndal Alonso, Amryn Carroll, Ella Richards, and Rayna Beckham will be expected to step up and into bigger roles along with our other returning players. I am excited to coach a team with a little bit of a new look and style of play going into next year, but we have a lot of work to do this offseason to get where we need to be.”

Peebles

10 11 14 12 —47

Whiteoak

15 9 18 17 —59

Peebles (47): Alyssa Smalley 11, Shiveley 2, Abigail Smalley 6, Myers 20, Gray 7, Unger 1

Whiteoak (59): Charli Hauke 11, Hamm 1, Lucas 14, Roberts 9, Addy Hauke 15, Potts 9

Three-Point Goals:

Peebles (2)- Alyssa Smalley 1, Abigail Smalley 1

Whiteoak (6)- Charli Hauke 1, Lucas 1, Roberts 2, Addy Hauke 2