Gallery by Heather Belcher
New Richmond – At the end of its early gauntlet, Wyoming East found itself stung.
The Class AA No. 1 Lady Warriors became the second No. 1 team and reigning state champion to fall victim to Class AAA East Fairmont this season, falling 66-56 in New Richmond. The win comes after the Bees handed defending Class AAA champion North Marion a 68-50 win on the Huskies’ home floor last week.
Fairmont all-stater Kenly Rogers proved too much for the Lady Warriors early as did the swarming defense of the Bees that forced 28 turnovers.
“That’s what we do,” East Fairmont head coach James Beckman said. “That’s our identity. I thought we wore them down late in the second quarter and then picked up again in the mid-to-late third quarter so we were able to impose our will and identity.”
Fairmont took control late in a fast-paced first quarter, leading 25-19 on the strength of Rogers 13-point outburst.
But it was the second quarter where the Bees built their cushion.
Brooklyn Shupe’s three-point play foreshadowed the success of the visitors with most of it coming in 3s. Rogers played the role of distributor in the frame, with the Bees nailing four of their five attempts from deep to head into the break up 44-34.
“She’s a nice player. I like her a lot,” East head coach Ryan Davidson said of Rogers who scored a game-high 23 points. “I think the thing is she scored it but what I liked the most is that she controlled pace. If she wanted to play fast, she played fast. If she wanted to slow it down, she slowed it down. And so it made things for them so much easier because she just controlled the game, but that’s what good players do.”
The floodgates creeped open in the third quarter after Jalyn Jenkins nailed a pair of 3s to push the lead 18 at 53-35 for the visitors.
But the hosts settled back in with a charge.
Four straight points from Kyndal Lusk and a layup each from Maddie Clark and Abi Baker brought Wyoming East back to within 10 with 2:37 left in the third quarter.
The issue came in sustaining that offense. Trailing 59-46 after three, East didn’t connect on its first field goal of the fourth until the 4:18 mark of the frame, and never found itself in position to seriously threaten the rest of the way.
Part of that was East’ own ineptitude at times, missing 15 free throws to go along with the 28 turnovers. But the Bees didn’t make anything easy.
“I thought we were undisciplined,” Davidson said. “We started taking chances. We got desperate in a lot of ways and we missed a lot of easy shots. When those easy shots are there against good teams, you got to capitalize on it, and we missed layups. We missed foul shots. But that has a lot to do with what they do. It’s because they’re good. And they made us play a little faster than we actually want to play, which is normally what we do to people.”
The Bees effectively used their depth to wear Wyoming East down. Rotating 10 players throughout the game, they flustered the Lady Warriors early to wear them down.
“We’re 10 to 11 deep,” Beckman said. “These kids play that style and practice that way. They’re able to continue that intensity while they’re out there on the floor. They know their roles while they’re in and we’re able to play 94 feet.”
“I think we allowed ourselves to get trapped,” Davidson said. “We knew what they were going to do. We didn’t see anything that we didn’t expect. It was just I don’t think that we’ve seen that kind of speed. So when it happened, it happened fast. So we played faster than we needed to and we didn’t even get into offense. I mean, it was just let’s just get it and go and hope for the best. And when you play like that you’re going to have live ball turnovers that turn into layups or kick-out 3s.”
Maddie Clark led Wyoming East with 17 in the loss.
Wyoming East (5-1) will play Greenbrier West at Greenbrier East on Dec. 26.
EF: 25 19 15 5 – 66
WE: 19 15 12 10 – 56
East Fairmont
K. Haymond 13, E. Moore 7, T. Myers 3, K. Fridley 2, K. Rogers 23, K. Opas 1, J. Jenkins 9, B. Hupe 8
Wyoming East
Maddie Clark 17, Cadee Blackburn 11, Abi Baker 5, Charleigh Price 6, Kenna Price 2, Kyndal Lusk 7, Alivia Monroe 6, Gabby Cameron 2
