White Plains girls hold off Weaver
- Updated: December 6, 2014
Bearcats make it close after big loss the night before; Ohatchee falls to Glencoe
White Plains’ Amber Greenwood tries to protect the basketball against Weaver pressure. (Photo by Micaela Truett)
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
WHITE PLAINS — The way one feels coming out of any athletic contest is all a matter of perspective.
The White Plains girls basketball escaped Friday night with a 46-43 win over Weaver and the two coaches left the building feeling completely different than you’d might expect given their respective outcomes.
White Plains coach Michael Merriman was just glad to get out of his own gym with a win; the Wildcats played that kind of game. Weaver coach Gary Atchley, meanwhile, was glad it was close after his Bearcats lost by 77 to Jacksonville the night before.
“Was I surprised they played us that close?” Merriman said. “No. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you don’t come focused and you don’t come ready to do your job, anybody will beat you.
“If we’re going to show up expecting to beat folks then were going to get beat a lot.”
White Plains won despite too many fouls (21), too many turnovers (36) and scoring only one point in the fourth quarter — and that was Amber Greenwood’s free throw with three-tenths of a second remaining or they might have been shut out. Greenwood led the Wildcats with 16 points.
Weaver was in the game throughout, but could never grab hold of a lead. The Bearcats got within 23-21 inside of a minute left in the second quarter, then White Plains scored six points in about nine seconds to take a 29-21 halftime lead.
They trailed by 10 after three quarters, then clawed back within 45-43 on Kaela Scott’s basket with 2:14 to play. But they killed themselves down the stretch by not fouling in the final 1:42 to stop the clock and perhaps force a turnover despite having several fouls to give.
They finally did compel a whistle with 19.1 seconds left and again with 2.6 — and Atchley was trying to get a timeout after Greenwood missed the second of her two shots with tenths on the clock.
“In junior high you don’t have a lot of these situations, so when that happened to us tonight, we really didn’t understand the concept of what we were trying to do,” Atchley said. “All they were doing was playing hard and playing defense like we’ve taught them and they didn’t understand to foul them.
“But we’ll fix that and we’ll be a better team because of what happened to us tonight, I promise you that.”
But the fact they were even in the game after such a demoralizing defeat 24 hours early said something about the Bearcats’ character. They lost to Jacksonville 99-22 in a game they trailed 32-0 after the first quarter and came within 25 seconds to giving up 100.
They had almost as many points in the first half against the Wildcats as they had the entire game against Jacksonville and did have as many in the second half.
“It showed me these girls don’t want to lose; they have a lot of heart,” Atchley said. “That game hurt us last night. We were in the locker room a long time and did a lot of soul searching. That game will make us better. I hope that’s a turning point in our season.”
Mariah Thompson led Weaver with 12, while Scott finished with 10.
Glencoe 56, Ohatchee 42
GLENCOE – Morgan Lee and Joria Steger did as much as they could, but the Indians just didn’t have enough for their hosts.
Lee scored 22 points, while Steger had 12 points and 13 rebounds.
GIRLS BOX SCORES
White Plains 46, Weaver 43
WEAVER – Tayarra Perry 2 0-1 4, Ciera Hardy 1 2-4 4, Keara Scott 4 2-9 10, Rayae Beck 4 0-5 9, Emily Reed 2 0-0 4, Mariah Thompson 5 2-3 12, Morgan Wigley 0 0-0 0, Camron Logan 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 6-22 43.
WHITE PLAINS – Rian Chandler 2 0-0 4, Hannah Barno 3 1-2 8, Korie Burgess 1 0-0 2, Chasity Nelson 1 0-2 2, Amber Greenwood 6 4-4 16, Grey Young 0 0-0 0, Shelby Wood 0 3-4 3, Landry Bussey 2 0-3 4, Mary Clare Young 1 0-0 2, Hayala Harmon 1 1-2 3, Jocelyn Harris 1 0-0 2. Totals 18 9-18 46.
Weaver 8 13 14 8 — 43
White Plains 12 17 16 1 — 46
3-point goals: Weaver 1 (Beck); White Plains 1 (Barno). Total fouls: Weaver 19, White Plains 21. Fouled out: Thompson.
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