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Lady Warriors win! North Adams no longer unbeaten in SHL

Friday, 16 January 2009

Photo: Eastern's Ashleigh Yockey fires from three-point land.

By WADE LINVILLE
Sports editor, The News Democrat

The Eastern Lady Warriors got off to a great start en route to a 57-45 win over the North Adams Lady Green Devils. The loss at Eastern marked the Lady Green Devils’ first of the season in Southern Hills League play. By topping the Lady Green Devils Monday night, the Lady Warriors not only upped their odds of claiming their 11th straight league title, but also improved the chances for a few other SHL teams.

“Without this win there was probably no chance of finishing first in this league,” said Eastern coach Richard Kiser.
The only SHL team that stood undefeated after Monday night’s high school hoop action was the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs. Following Monday’s round of games, North Adams and Ripley held just one league loss. Fayetteville-Perry, Manchester and Eastern held only two league losses after Monday’s action.
Both teams were off and running at the start of Monday’s bout, as North Adams’ Karli Beasley rifled in two three-pointers, two field goals and a free throw for 11 of the Lady Green Devils’ 17 first-quarter points. But the Lady Warriors brought some heat of their own early on, backed by a solid shooting performance from senior guard Ashleigh Yockey. Yockey tickled the twine with two shots from three-point land, one being the final shot in frame, and finished the first quarter with nine points. Eastern’s 6-1 center Rachel Mullins contributed with five points in the first frame, as the Lady Warriors managed to outscore North Adams 22-17.
Less than a minute into the second period North Adams’ Alisan Starks finished off an old fashioned three-point play to slice the Lady Warriors’ lead to two points.
The Lady Warriors looked in the paint their next trip down the court, hitting 6-0 forward Christina Burns who drew a foul on the shot. Burns buried both free throws to up the Eastern lead to 24-20 with 7:03 remaining in the second.
Quick buckets by North Adams’ Sarah Shupert and Beasley knotted the game at 24 with 5:40 to go in the second, but a dish by Allison Prine down low to Mullins for a score restored a two-point Eastern advantage.
Ashley Debord then ventured to the charity stripe for the Lady Green Devils, sinking one-of-two shots to cut the Eastern lead to one with just more than five minutes left in the first half. But the Lady Warriors kept pounding the ball in the paint, finding senior forward Bobbi Brown for a bucket to put the Lady Warriors up 28-25. The Lady Green Devils answered quick, as Beasley buried a field goal to reduce the Eastern lead to one.
The Lady Warriors went on a 7-1 run to end the first half. Prine launched a pass to Megan Scott for a basket on transition, followed by a three-pointer by Ashleigh Yockey. Then Leeza Rickey took a pass from Ashleigh Yockey and knocked down the bucket for the final score of the first half, Eastern with a 35-28 lead.
In a slow scoring third quarter the Lady Green Devils outscored the Lady Warriors 10-6 with Beasley coming through with six more points. But the Lady Warriors were ready to put it away in the fourth and that’s just what they did, outscoring the Lady Green Devils 16-7 to seal the victory. Nicolette Clifton and Brown combined for 10 of the Lady Warriors’ fourth-quarter points. Clifton hit two field goals late in the game, one from three-point land and the other inside the arc. Brown found most of her success at the charity stripe, sinking three-of-four from the foul line and a field goal from close range in the fourth period.
Prine hit her first field goal of the game in the fourth and came through with two free throws before the game ended to finish with four points. Ashleigh Yockey rounded out Lady Warriors’ scoring in the final frame with one field goal from two-point range.
Mullins was just one point shy of a double-double in Monday’s win, ending the night with nine points and 10 rebounds.
Ashleigh Yockey led Eastern scorers with 16 points.
Beasley took the game high with 25 points.
“She’s very explosive to the right and does a great job defensively,” Kiser said of Beasley.
As a team the Lady Warriors shot 52.5 percent from inside the arc, 44.4 percent from three-point range and 61.1 percent from the charity stripe in the win over North Adams. The Lady Green Devils shot 30.6 percent from two-point range, 22.2 percent from beyond the arc and 61.9 percent from the foul line in the loss to Eastern.
Having Clifton back in action at the guard spot Monday night was a key factor, as the Lady Warriors had little trouble facing the Lady Green Devils’ aggressive defensive pressure.
“Before, we were really worried about getting the ball up the floor, but now Nicolette can take care of that for us,” said Kiser.
The Lady Warriors moved to a 2-2 SHL record following Monday’s league win, and North Adams dropped to 4-1 in the league.

Eastern 22 13 6 16 – 57
North Adams 17 11 10 7 – 45

EASTERN (57) – Ashleigh Yockey 6 1-1 16, Scott 1 0-0 2, Prine 1 2-5 4, Black 1 0-0 2, Clifton 2 0-0 5, Rickey 1 0-0 2, Brown 4 5-6 13, Burns 1 2-2 4, Mullins 4 1-4 9. TOTALS – 21 11-18 57.

NORTH ADAMS (45) – Beasley 8 7-10 25, Hughes 1 0-0 2, Davis 0 0-2 0, Copas 1 0-0 2, Debord 0 3-4 3, McFarland 2 0-0 4, Shupert 2 0-0 4, Sparks 1 3-5 5. TOTALS – 15 13-21 45.
3-POINTERS: EHS (Ashleigh Yockey 3, Clifton); NAHS (Beasley 2).