Gallery by Brad Davis
New Richmond – In its biggest test of the season Mercer Christian traveled over Herndon Mountain for a matchup with defending Class AA champion Wyoming East.
By the time the scoreboard hit zero the young Cavaliers found out they still had much to learn.
Wyoming East forced 16 first-half turnovers, rolling to a 72-44 victory over Mercer Christian Thursday night in New Richmond.
Playing through foul trouble much of the first half, the Lady Warriors relied on crisp passes and deadeye shooting, building a 46-19 lead at the intermission, never looking back.
Nine free throw attempts in the first quarter sustained the visitors’ offense but they struggled from the field, converting on just three field goals in opening quarter and four in the entire first half.
“The whole idea was to make sure we were taking it at them so we did so that,” Mercer Christian coach Jessica Patton said. “We had to be very intentional about our screens and our spacing to allow people to drive. They did that well and knocked down their foul shots. What we didn’t do is once we got stuck we didn’t have the in-and-out. We didn’t knock down our outside shots.”
Junior Kayley Bane led the charge for the Lady Warriors from the onset, scoring her team’s first six points and staking them to a 6-2 advantage. Kirsten Trump answered on the other end, converting on the first two fouls shots of the quarter for the visitors but a 3-pointer from Hannah Blankenship on an assist from Colleen Lookabill widened the margin.
A layup from Bane and another 3-pointer from Blankenship pushed East’s lead to nine.
A pair of free throws from Kayley Trump later in the quarter helped get it back to seven but Bane was a riddle the visitors couldn’t solve, dropping another layup and a 3-pointer in the scoring column to push the advantage to 21-11.
Another layup from the junior capped the scoring in the quarter as East waltzed out of the frame ahead 25-13 with 15 of those points coming from Bane.
“We did have good ball movement tonight,” East coach Angie Boninsegna said. “We missed a couple of shots but overall we were getting the ball out and getting nice opens shots. Hannah shot the ball well tonight and so did Kayley. Hopefully we’ll be able to build on that. We were a little off a times and we’re having these week-long breaks and we need to get out and play. I was really glad we got to play tonight.”
Much of the success for the Warriors came from their ability to turn defense into offense. Their pressure bothered the Cavaliers, generating layup looks in transition.
When they were able to break it the Lady Warriors held strong in the half court, swarming the ball.
The second quarter saw the hosts lean on their defense to open the floodgates. They limited Mercer Christian to just one made field goal on six attempts. Meanwhile Bane passed the baton to sophomore Maddie Clark who scored 10 of her 15 points in the frame. She finished the game with eight steals, indicative of her performance on defense.
“A lot of credit to their defense,” Patton said. “It was intense and it was in our face. I felt like when it was in the full court we were getting better. We didn’t get to finish but we were getting better. It hurt us more when we went to the half court setting and we weren’t hitting screens right. We were going to areas but we weren’t hitting our screens right. I personally liked it better when they were pressing us because we were at least getting in the open field. When they went half court they really shut us down more so because we weren’t intentional about hitting our screens. We were just going to areas.”
The foul trouble and score margin allowed Boninsegna to give regular rotational players Charlie Price and Laken Toler more minutes earlier in the game. It also allowed the veteran coach to rest her starters, a luxury she hasn’t been afforded much this season.
“I think we were able to give them a lot of rest and get some younger players in,” Boninsegna said. “That helped us a lot in the fourth quarter and we were able to switch Maddie and Cadee (Blackburn) in at different times to help run the point. We haven’t been able to give those two much rest this season so that was nice.”
Bane led all scorers with 25 points in three quarters while Clark (15), Blankenship (11) and Blackburn (11) all scored in double figures for East. Bailee Martin led Mercer Christian with 13 points while Kayley Trump added 10.
The Cavaliers fall to 12-4 and will return to action next Saturday when they travel to New Life Christian. Wyoming East will host Class AAAA Princeton on Wednesday.
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
MC: 13 6 7 18 – 44
WE: 25 21 21 5 – 72
Mercer Christian
Karis Trump 9, Ella Botts 3, Kirsten Trump 9, Bailee Martin 13, Kayley Trump 10
Wyoming East
Hannah Blankenship 11, Madison Clark 15, Kayley Bane 25, Colleen Lookabill 4, Cadee Blackburn 11, Alivia Monroe 4, Abby Russell 2
3-point goals – MC: 3 (Karis Trump)
