Lady Dragons get conference win over Ripley, now 6-8 overall

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Observers around the Southern Hills Athletic Conference have been known to say recently how improved and dangerous are Coach Jacob Stout and his West Union Lady Dragons. Despite their 6-8 overall record, the Lady Dragons and their frenetic pace of play and ability to get up and amazing number of shots per game is enough to make opposing coaches take them very seriously.

Case in point, the Lady Dragons hosted the Ripley Lady Jays in conference play on January 22 and their formula was the same as they fired up 73 total shots in the game and also were plagued by an old nemesis in committing 19 turnovers. On the other hand, they held the Lady Jays to just 23% shooting and forced 23 turnovers in claiming their third win in the SHAC by a final score of 52-36 on Senior Night at WUHS.

“This was one of the best games we played all season,” said Coach Stout in an interview with GoodGuysRadioTV. “We showed some resilience and the girls wqere ready to go tonight. We’re not going to back down from anybody and we are going to play hard for four quarters, no matter the situation. We’ve also been rebounding exceptionally well all season.”

This Thursday night battle was brutal to watch in the early going as the two team combined for just 12 first quarter points. West Union’s Emmy Stapleton got the first basket of the game at the 6:49 mark, quickly evened up by a bucket by Ripley’s Raquel Hackney. Both sides then went scoreless for nearly three minutes before the tie was broken with a steal and score by West Union’s Annabelle McIntosh, the first of what would be her game-high 20 points. Hackney again tied the game with 2:45 left in the first but a minute later, the Lady Dragons took the lead back with a basket by Jocelyn Hall. With 1:36 left, a pair of free throws by Ripley’s Callie Fultz evened the scoreboard at 6 apiece, which is where the first period ended.

The deadlock remained as the second stanza began with three-point baskets by West Union’s Violet Randolph and Ripley’s Abi Taylor. The Lady Dragons then got scores from Hall and Kaydence Cook to take a four-point advantage, one they never gave up the rest of the evening. With 3:55 left in the first half, a basket by Shelbi Weakley made it 15-10 for the home team and an ensuing score from Maddie Stout extended the lead to seven. After another two-pointer from Hackney, the Lady Dragons took a 19-12 lead into halftime after another bucket by Stout.

The scoring pace picked up considerably after the break with 37 points illuminating the scoreboard in quarter number three. West Union began the scoring parade and stretched their lead to double digits with buckets from Stout and Stapleton before two free throws from Brooklyn Manning and another two from Hackney pulled the Lady Jays back within 23-16. A basket by Madison With the Lady Dragons up 25-18, West Union’s Annabelle McIntosh began cooking, hitting two free throws, a baseline jumper and a three-pointer to push her team in front 32-20.

A basket “and one” from Hackney drew the visitors closer but a later three-ball from the corner by McIntosh kept the home team up 37-26. After Ripley sliced the margin back down to single digits with a pair of Manning free throws, the Lady Dragons closed the third quarter with a basket by Hall to lead 39-29.

The final quarter began with West Union stretching their lead after baskets on their first two possessions from Stapleton and McIntosh, the latter making it 43-30 in favor of the home side. The Lady Jays kept their hopes alive with consecutive scores from Manning but McIntosh kept the hot hand, scoring six straight for the Lady Dragons, including picking the pocket of Ripley guards for back-to-back steals and layups to put the game out of reach. For good measure, Stout added a long three-pointer and the Lady Dragons had picked up an impressive conference win, downing the Lady Jays by that final count of 52-36.

The winners put eight different players in the scoring column, led by the 20-point effort from Annabelle McIntosh, who also added 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 6 steals. Maddie Stout added 9 for the Lady Dragons while hauling down 7 rebounds. The rebounding leader for West Union was senior Emmy Stapleton, who pulled in 8 boards. As a team, the Lady Dragons grabbed 41 rebounds, 23 of those on the offensive end.

“When Annabelle gets her feet set, she is a great shooter and her motor is pretty quick,” said Coach Stout. “Maddie doesn’t always have to be an offensive factor, she does so many other things well.”

Ripley fell to 8-8 on the year and were led in scoring by a pair of girls in double figures, led by Raquel Hackney’s 17 points with Brooklyn Manning adding 11 points plus 8 rebounds. The Lady Jays only made 11 field goals in the loss but were 13-17 from the free throw line.

The win over Ripley pulled West Union to within one game of .500 at 6-7 (3-5 SHAC) but they dropped two games under after a tough Saturday morning match up in the Eastern Brown Winter Hoops Classic saw them suffer a 54-33 defeat at the hands of the Williamsburg Lady Wildcats.

Coach Stout and his squad were slated for two conference road games this week, at Whiteoak on Monday night and Eastern Brown on Thursday, but both of those games were likely in jeopardy after the weekend weather events.

Box Score

Ripley

6 6 17 7 —36

West Union

6 13 20 13 —52

Ripely (36): Fultz 1 2-2 4, Manning 3 5-6 11, Hackney 6 5-7 17, Taylor 1 1-2 4, Team 11 13-17 36.

W. Union (52): Stout 4 0-0 9, McIntosh 8 2-3 20, Cook 1 2-2 4, Hall 3 0-0 6, Randolph 1 0-0 3, Stapleton 3 0-0 6, Weakley 1 0-0 2, White 1 0-2 2, Team 22 4-7 52.

Three-Point Goals:

Ripley (1)- Taylor 1

W. Union (4)- Stout 1, McIntosh 2, Randolph 1