For the first time since November 26, 2004 the West Greene Lady Buffaloes defeated the Hampton Lady Bulldogs on Tuesday night, prevailing 45-33 for a key District 1-2A victory.
After snapping a lengthy 20-year winless drought against South Greene just seven days prior, the Lady Buffs were looking to snap another long drought. They didn’t have to look too far in advance for their next opportunity. West Greene jumped out to an early lead right away, never trailed, and walked away with a win that strengthened their case for the top spot in the conference.
“We played for four quarters tonight and that was the difference. One of the things we’ve been working on is trying to be more consistent. We did a better job at being consistent tonight and not panicking at the end like we had in previous games,” Lady Buffs Head Coach Betsy Shaw mentioned.
Their dynamic duo of Morgan Brown and Joie Shipley played some of their best basketball together all season and helped score 66 percent of West Greene’s points. Brown led all scorers with 16 points and four three-pointers while Shipley followed closely behind with 14.
With the win, West Greene is now 3-2 halfway through their District 1-2A schedule. They sit it second place with South Greene and Hampton. Chuckey-Doak sits in first place with a 4-1 record.
“We have the pieces we need, we’re just trying to put them together,” Coach Shaw said. “It’s supposed to mean something for teams to have to come here and it’s not meant a significant amount to us. We’ve tried doing better at that.”
West Greene shot ahead through a 6-0 run to start the matchup. Payton Norton made the first shot of the night with a baseline layup and Joie Shipley scored the next four with a mid-range and layup. Brea Hicks briefly halted their run with a three-pointer, but it turned out to be Hampton’s only points of the first quarter. Morgan Brown drained a triple and Norton and Shipley scored again with layups to end the first.
West Greene led 13-3 after one quarter of action.
Brown and Shipley showed their range with another three-point bucket for Brown and a long two-pointer from Shipley. Hampton’s next points came from a Piper Helle free throw with 4:20 remaining in the quarter. Emily Justis downed a three-point basket and boosted the lead to 21-4 before Hampton finished with a 6-0 run to head into halftime.
West Greene led 21-10 at the break.
Shaw decided to do something a little different on defense and forced Hampton into taking quick shots and sped them up with a press defense. The pressure forced Hampton into turnovers, quick shots, and bad decision making that played a key role in West Greene’s ability to maintain their lead.
“I’m trying to figure out different ways for us to score and that’s one of the ways. We’ve had the press awhile but the one thing about the press is you have to sub more and I don’t sub much. So tonight, I subbed more. But it worked,” Coach Shaw mentioned.
The third quarter has plagued the Lady Buffs multiple times this year and for a brief moment it seemed like it was going to again. Brown and Norton provided five-straight to open up the frame and put West Greene ahead by 16. Hampton scored 13-straight and finished the quarter on a 16-2 run to pull within five at 28-23 going into the final eight minutes.
Their response to the run was to go on another run of their own to stretch their lead back to 13 points. Brown’s running floater and Sarah Justis’ layup helped keep their lead after Faye Carrico started the quarter with a short jumper.
Joie Shipley picked up her fourth foul with 5:30 left to play, but weathered the storm and managed to stay in for the rest of the game. Her presence was crucial in the closing stretch with a tough layup falling away with a foul.
Morgan Brown scored five-straight after that to create a double-digit margin. In that run, she netted her fourth three-point field goal of the contest. She managed to hit one in every quarter.
West Greene snapped a 20-year winless drought against Hampton with a 45-33 win at the conclusion of Tuesday night’s game.
Brown led all scorers with 16 points and Shipley contributed with 14. Faye Carrico led Hampton with 11.
They travel to Happy Valley on Friday night for their next District 1-2A contest.
BOYS
HAMPTON 63, West Greene 41
West Greene hung around and played a competitive first half, but let the third quarter slip away and couldn’t catch up in a 63-41 loss to Hampton on Tuesday night.
“Overall, the boys played hard all night. They never gave up or hung their heads. Had some big minutes from kids that hadn’t got a lot of minutes. They stepped up in a big way and played well for us,” West Greene Coach Allen Tolliver said.
The last time both teams met, the Buffaloes pulled off an overtime upset in the 3rd-place game of last year’s District 1-2A Tournament. After briefly taking a 24-23 lead late in the second quarter, it seemed like another great game could be in store. Unfortunately for the Buffs, a 22-5 run in the third quarter ruined their hopes of pulling off another stunner at home.
West Greene was playing without Ayden Lamons for the first time, and his presence in the paint was a huge missing piece. The Bulldogs’ big man, Jayden Nave, scored a game-high 16 points from the post position and cleaned up the glass all night.
“Going into it, we were banged up a little bit. I only had 7 varsity guys tonight so the rotation was a little slim,” Tolliver explained.
Braden McCamey had the hot hand for West Greene and finished with 15 points.
The loss drops West Greene to 3-2 through five games against District 1-2A competitors and 0-7 overall.
Hampton wasted no time by making field goals on two of their first three possessions to gain an early 4-0 lead. The lead grew to 16-4 at the most before West Greene started finding some offense late in the first. Elijah Williams made a quick layup and Sam Wisecarver hit a mid-range fader.
Jayden Nave finished the quarter with eight points and had Hampton ahead 20-10 at the end of one.
Young freshman Tytus Shelton helped start West Greene’s second-quarter comeback with a running baseline floater. McCamey banked the ball off the glass and Sam Wisecarver finished an and-one, three-point play to keep the motor running. Conner Campbell scored four-straight next with two layups. Another and-one from Wisecarver helped them hold a brief 24-23 lead before Tuff Robinson stole the lead back before the half with a layup.
The Buffs trailed 26-24 at the half.
The wheels seemed to fall off the bus in the third quarter. Wisecarver immediately tied the game with a fastbreak layup, but from there it was a 25-7 avalanche from Hampton for the rest of the quarter. They led 51-33 after the third quarter.
“We would get across half court and what they wanted is exactly what we did. We forced up some quick shots and everybody that’s coached or played basketball knows that if you force a quick shot and it doesn’t go in that leads to a wide-open run out. They rebound well enough to where they can just send one deep,” Tolliver stated.
McCamey splashed a pair of three-pointers in the fourth, but Caden Davis put the game away with six-straight points to counteract McCamey’s threes.
West Greene couldn’t overcome a tough third quarter stretch and fell to Hampton 63-41 in the end.
Chase Davenport and Jayden Nave led them with 16 points each. Tuff Robinson entered double digits with 10. Braden McCamey scored 15 to lead West Greene and Sam Wisecarver had 10.
The Buffs travel to Happy Valley on Friday for their next bit of action.
