West Union’s Annabelle McIntosh drives the lane in traffic in action from the Lady Dragons’ 52-42 loss to Piketon on December 29. McIntosh led West Union with 19 points in the loss. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
West Union’s Jocelyn Hall (12) is tied up in the corner by a Piketon defender in action from the December 29 Holiday Classic in North Adams. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
(Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Missed opportunities. Missed opportunities. And more missed opportunities. Those were the words that had to haunt West Union Lady Dragons head coach Jacob Stout after his team dropped a 52-42 decision to the Piketon Lady Redstreaks in the December 29 Holiday Classic at North Adams. The Lady Dragons shot just 26% from the field (15-58), 9-18 from the foul line and committed 17 turnovers as they suffered their fifth loss of the 2-25-26 season.
The contest started well for the Lady Dragons, tied at 8 apiece midway through the first quarter, but allowed the Lady Redstreaks to score the final six points of the period to take a 14-8 advantage.
The start of the second quarter was rather ugly, the two teams combining for five turnovers in the first 30 seconds. The first score of the frame came from West Union’s Madison White, but Piketon answered with a 7-0 run fueled by a pair of Layla Kelley three-pointers. The Lady Dragons began to claw back with baskets from Jocelyn Hall and Annabelle McIntosh but a score at the buzzer by Reese Shanks sent Piketon to the intermission with a 24-15 lead.
The Lady Redstreaks continued to build their advantage as the second half commenced, piecing together an early 8-0 run to go up 32-17. With Piketon in front 35-20, the Lady Dragons reeled off eight straight, baskets by White, McIntosh, Madison Stout and Kaydence Cook to close the gap to 35-28. After a bucket by Piketon’s Jaylynn Forbes, another score from Cook in the final seconds of the third quarter kept West Union in striking distance, down 37-30.
Things began to look really promising for the Lady Dragons when McIntosh drilled a triple to open the fourth quarter, but again a rash of missed opportunities allowed Piketon to rattle off five straight to push their lead back to 42-33. A baseline runner by McIntosh kept West Union within seven but again the Lady Redstreaks answered and extended their lead to 47-35, before the red-hot McIntosh netted baskets from beyond the arc and inside the arc to keep West Union hopes alive. Unfortunately for the team in white and green, they could only manage one more basket, a putback from Shelbi Weakley, as the Lady Redstreaks held on to claim the 10-point triumph.
“We’ve been playing four quarters recently and now it’s just a matter of not turning the ball over and making some of those shots,” said Coach Stout in his postgame radio interview. “We need to just slow down sometimes and look for the good shots. We have girls hungry to play and when we start making shots things will look a lot better.”
The victorious Piketon squad was led in scoring by two girls in double figures, Jaylynn Forbes with a game-high 22 and Layla Kelley with 15.
West Union was led by Annabelle McIntosh’s 19 points, 13 of those in the second half. Maddie Stout added 9 . Shelbi Weakley led the team by hauling down 9 rebounds with Emmy Stapleton adding 5 boards.
The Lady Dragons were back in action one night later on December 30, traveling to Bethel-Tate and dropping a 64-61 decision to the Lady Tigers, leaving West Union at 3-6 for the season.
Box Score
Piketon
14 10 13 15 —52
West Union
8 7 15 12 —42
Piketon (52): Kelley 4 4-7 15, Penwell 0 1-2 1, Shanks 3 1-2 7, Forbes 7 8-10 22, Hale 1 0-0 3, Roberts 1 2-2 4, Team 16 16-23 52.
W. Union (52): Hall 2 0-2 4, Stout 2 5-6 9, Cook 2 0-0 4, Weakley 1 0-4 2, McIntosh 6 4-6 19, White 2 0-0 4, Team 15 9-18 42.
Three-Point Goals:
Piketon (4)- Kelley 3, Hale 1
W. Union (3)- McIntosh 3
