The West Greene Lady Buffaloes sprinted out to an early lead and never let go in a wire-to-wire 50-17 victory over visiting Happy Valley to start their conference season 1-0.
“It feels good to start on a winning streak against them. They ended our season last year and, even with that halftime lead, we tried to not let up at all and just keep the pressure on so it didn’t come down to a shot at the end,” West Greene Head Coach Betsy Shaw expressed.
Tuesday night’s victory was a big one for Coach Shaw’s team. The win gives them their second 3-game win streak of the season and improved their record to 6-2. Winning the first district game was an important point of emphasis for Shaw and the job was done without any doubt.
The Lady Warriors ended West Greene’s season in the District 1-2A Tournament last year. After holding a sizable lead, Happy Valley came back to knock off the Lady Buffs. With that still in their minds, Coach Shaw and her squad made sure to leave no stone unturned and won in decisive fashion.
Morgan Brown led the attack with 19 points to lead all scorers. “She did a great job. She had a great game. She works so hard in practice. She does a ton for us that doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet, but she worked hard and did great tonight,” Shaw stated.
The game’s first points were scored on a putback layup from Sarah Justis. Joie Shipley’s presence was felt early with a block and rebound on defense that led to an assist on a cross-court pass to Brown for a layup. They switched roles for the next set of points as Brown’s cut to the basket led to a double team that left Shipley open for a layup. Shipley stripped the ball away and fired another assist up court to Sarah Justis.
Coach Shaw explained Shipley’s contributions, “She does a lot of little stuff like the blocks and assists. She had a bunch of teammates that stepped up and knocked the shots down. She’d drive and they’d double team her and she’d dump it off to one of her teammates. She was really effective.”
Brown ended the quarter with a pair of offensive putbacks. West Greene led 12-7 after the first quarter. Emily Justis landed a runner through the net for her first points and Katelyn Begines followed with her first two. Brown and Shipley ended a 10-0 West Greene run with a runner and a layup.
Cayden Anderson ended the run with a layup for Happy Valley. She led the Lady Warriors with 7 points.
Emily and Sarah Justis scored a bucket each to go along with Joie Shipley’s and-one to end the half. The Lady Buffs held a commanding 27-11 lead.
While both teams seemed to go cold from the field in the third quarter Morgan Brown helped score six points to extend West Greene’s lead to 35-15 heading into the fourth.
They continued to take over on offense and bridged a 19-0 run through the third and fourth quarters. Emily Justis connected for West Greene’s first of only two threes all night. Brown got a layup and running floater to fall before Begines drained the other three-point bucket. Madison Wagner and Leann Tunnell scored baseline mid ranges from the same spot on the court to cap off West Greene’s scoring.
The Lady Buffs lived on their defense throughout the night and only held Happy Valley to six total points in the second half. They almost held them scoreless the entire fourth quarter until a steal and layup with less than 20 seconds left.
West Greene celebrated a 50-17 win over Happy Valley to begin their District 1-2A slate with a victory.
Morgan Brown led all scorers with 19 points. Joie Shipley also had 9.
Cayden Anderson led Happy Valley with 7 points.
West Greene travels to Johnson County next on Friday night for their second district game of the week.
