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Lady Wildcats claw Carlisle 41-38 in sectional tournament

Wednesday, 06 February 2008

LADY CATS SCALP LADY INDIANS IN CLOSING SECONDS

Blanchester wins tourney tilt over Carlisle, 41-38

By BILL LIERMANN

Sports Writer

WILMINGTON — A strong battle through the final seconds of Tuesday night’s game gave the Blanchester High School girls basketball team a 41-38 win over Carlisle in the opening game of the Division III girls sectional basketball tournament at Wilmington Middle School. After a sluggish start, trailing by a 6-0 count, Carlisle held a 12-5 lead after the opening quarter, and held an 18-17 lead at the half. The third quarter was a see-saw including three ties (20-22-24) and three lead changes before Carlisle grabbed a 27-26 advantage going into the final quarter.

Then things really tightened up and set the stage for a dramatic finish, as the lead changed hands four times and was tied two more times before the Lady ’Cats pulled it out. Blanchester’s Jenna Weisflock snapped a 38-38 tie on a driving layup with 11.2 seconds to play and was fouled. Although she missed the free throw, the Lady ’Cats got the ball and Chelsea Wisniewski made the first of a two shot foul to give Blan a three point lead with 0:06.6 remaining.

Having to go the full length of the court, Carlisle worked the ball to midcourt, then called timeout with less then one second to go. The Lady Indians were unable to get a good look at a potential game-tying trey, as the final horn sounded.

Blanchester’s Ashley Watkins, who led all players in scoring with 19, was dialing it up from long distance all night long, connecting on five trey’s, the last one forging a 38-38 tie with 0:30 to play. Her knack of hitting from beyond the arc is something her coach, Jason Gray, has come to expect.

“Ashley has the ability to shoot the three with regularity and she did it for us tonight,” he said.

Gray pointed to an important sequence when his team may have been on the ropes, and Watkins came through with five unanswered points to get his team back in the game. Carlisle’s Stephanie Reed nailed a pair of treys to put the Lady Indians in front, 36-30 with just over 4:00 to play. Watkins came back with a trey, then stole a pass and drove for a bucket to cut the margin back to one.

“Those two plays were huge, and enabled us to keep it close,” Gray said.

Two other stats Gray was pleased with were forced turnovers by Carlisle and the rebounding totals, which the Lady Cats claimed by a 35-29 margin.

“Coach (Bill) Schmidbauer keeps track of the turnovers, and they had 21 tonight, a bunch of them came in the second half. Our defense forced a lot of those,” he noted.

On the boards, Jenna Weisflock pulled down 13 rebounds and Emily McCollister handed out five assists.

By winning, Blanchester, now 9-12 overall, advances to the next round on Saturday where the team will face the No. 3 seed, undefeated Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy, in a noon tip-off.

“They’re a very good basketball team and we must improve our defensive effort. They may have lost their top player to an injury late in the season, but they’re still gonna be tough to beat,” Gray said.

In the second game played Tuesday evening, Bishop Fenwick had an easy time with Jamestown Greeneview, handing the Lady Rams a 31-13 defeat. The Falcons held a 14-2 lead at intermission, and upped the count to 25-4 after three periods. They will face No. 2 see Madison Saturday in the second game of the afternoon, with a scheduled start time of 1:30 pm.

SUMMARY

CHS 12 6 9 11 — 38

BHS 5 12 9 15 — 41

(38) CARLISLE (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Bolen 2-0-0-4, Reed 0-3-0-9, Back 3-0-2-8, Boyer 1-0-1-3, Shelton 1-0-1-3, Hamilton 1-1-0-5, Estep 2-0-0-4, Holbrook 0-0-2-2. Team Totals 10-4-6-38.

(41) BLANCHESTER (2fg-3fg-ft-tp) Richardson 1-0-2-4, Weisflock 2-0-4-8, Brooks 1-0-0-2, Wisniewski 1-1-1-6, Rineair 1-0-0-2, Watkins 1-5-2-19. Team 7-6-9-41.