The West Greene girls flipped the script in the second half on Friday night, but Chuckey-Doak had just enough left in the tank in the fourth quarter to hold off the Lady Buffaloes and pick up 45-39 win.
“We started out bringing the fight to them, but in the second half they brought the fight to us,” Chuckey-Doak coach Kyle Donahue said. “We got a little cautious and they started a comeback. But it’s good to get a road win in conference play. I thought we played gritty and in crunch time we made the plays necessary to win.”
The Lady Black Knights held West Greene to just 11 points in the first half and went to the break holding a 13-point lead. But West Greene found new life entering third quarter and quickly had Chuckey-Doak on the ropes.
After Kennedy Brown sank a three-pointer and scored in transition Chuckey-Doak took its biggest lead at 30-13 with 6:27 left in the third quarter.
After that things began to click for the Lady Buffaloes as they went on 19-2 run that tied the game at 32-32.
Joie Shipley led the defensive effort as she closed off the paint with her towering presence and quick hands. On offense Morgan Brown found the hot hand and scored 11 points in the run.
Chuckey-Doak relied on high-pressure defense to force turnovers in the first half, but in the third quarter West Greene maintained control of the ball and that pressure defense turned into a bevy fouls that sent the Lady Buffs to the free-throw line five time for six points.
With 1:16 left in the quarter Shipley hit Morgan Brown on a backdoor cut that closed the gap to 32-30. After a quick Lady Knight’s turnover Brown landed a runner from the right side that evened things at 32-32 with 52 seconds on the clock.
Chuckey-Doak took a 33-32 lead into the fourth quarter after Isabelle Karricker made one of two at the charity stripe.
After allowing 21 points in the third period Chuckey-Doak regrouped and locked down on defense once again, only allowing seven points in the fourth quarter.
“We had to take care of the ball in the fourth quarter, and we needed to find better shots,” Donahue said. “For so much of the third quarter we went at Shipley and got blocked, and that started a run out for them. We had to get back to the basics on offense. On defense we had to stop those drives and kicks, and backdoor cuts that made things too easy in the third quarter.”
Neither team did much scoring early in the fourth quarter, but with 4:18 left to play Saniah Atchison nailed a three-pointer to give Chuckey-Doak a 38-33 cushion.
With 1:50 left to play Neveah Fillers laid one off the glass for West Greene to close the gap to 39-36, but just 10 seconds later Layla Fox answered with a jumper from the short corner.
With 27 seconds left Brown got through the Lady Knights’ pressing defense and attacked the rim to cut the lead to 42-39, but the Lady Buffaloes would get no closer.
Chuckey-Doak went 4-of-12 at the foul line over the final 1:26, but they played well enough on defense to only allow three points in that stretch.
Friday’s action began with the Lady Black Knights’ high-pressure defense suffocating the Lady Buffs and leading to an early 11-0 lead. Fox and Brown each scored four points in the stretch.
“That early stretch ended up being huge,” Donahue said. “If we don’t bring it like that in the first half, we probably don’t have enough of a lead to win. We did a good job of jumping on them early and did some things on defense that hurt them. But credit to coach (Betsy) Shaw for correcting those things at halftime and taking it to us in the second half.”
West Greene’s first bucket of the day came with 2:23 left in the first quarter, and the period ended with Chuckey-Doak leading 13-4.
Less than a minute into the second quarter Karricker laid one off the glass to put Chuckey-Doak in front 17-4, but then West Greene’s defense began to become more potent and only allowed two more field goals for the rest of the quarter.
Brown knocked down a three-pointer for West Greene that closed the gap to 20-11, but Chloe Kirkpatrick sent Chuckey-Doak into halftime leading 24-11 after sinking a toe-on-the-line two.
Brown led all scorers on Friday with 20 points for West Greene, while Shipley finished with nine.
For Chuckey-Doak Fox had 12 points, Tralyn Southerland scored 11 and Brown put in nine points.
