Gallery by Ashley Honaker
Lindside – On a night where the outdoor temperatures hovered around 10 degrees, the thermometer on Wyoming East’s offense dropped even lower.
Hitting on just 22 percent of their shots, the two-time defending Class AA state champions and No. 3-ranked Lady Warriors bottomed out in a 55-50 loss to No. 6 James Monroe in Lindside Tuesday night.
It was a rough night overall for the Lady Warriors who took more shots (72-46) and won the turnover battle (23-11) but couldn’t pry the lid off the basket.
Worst of all East all-stater Abi Baker suffered an apparent knee injury in the fourth quarter needing to be carried off the court. She did not return.
“She’s hurting pretty bad,” East head coach Ryan Davidson said. “Everybody in there is, really bad. So we’ll go through the process and see what it looks like, but anytime you see somebody grabbing a knee, it always scares you.”
On the opposite bench it was all jubilation for the Lady Mavericks who came into the season unranked in the coaches poll despite having advanced to the Class A semifinals last year.
They rode their lead horses in Maggie Boroski and Ava Dunlap who proved unstoppable for majority of the night. Boroski, who missed the final three minutes of the opening half with a wrist injury, finished with a game-high 26 points to go along with 14 rebounds. Dunlap added 20 with 18 coming in the second half. Both players produced those outputs on 50 percent shooting from the field.
Seven of Boroski’s nine field goals came from the same spot – within five feet of the right side of the basket.
“I thought she played extremely well,” Davidson said. “She’s just way more physical than we are. When it was a 50-50 ball, she won every time and that’s a tribute to her. 
That’s because she worked really hard, and she wanted it more than we did, so kudos to her.”
“Maggie likes that shot and she if she can get ahead of it and beat her man, she’s going in,” James Monroe head coach Angie Mann said. “
And Mya figured it out too in the second half. It took her a little while.”
The shooting woes were on display for both teams early.
East took a 3-0 lead before missing its next seven field goal attempts, allowing Boroski to score the first six points for the hosts and take the lead. After Alivia Monroe broke East’s skid, Cadee Blackburn found the bottom of the net with a 3 but a free throw and later a 3 from Ava Dunlap helped the Mavs take a 10-9 advantage after a quarter.
The rock fight held in place through second quarter with neither team leading by more than a possession in a 21-19 game at the break.
With the hosts shooting 33 percent and East firing at 18 percent, there was nowhere to go but up. The Mavs decided to take a rocket ship there.
In the third quarter the Mavs shot 9 of 12 from the field, building a cushion.
Mya Dunlap split her scoring production evenly across the final two frames, scoring nine points in each, giving East matchup problems. With her team trailing 27-26, she scored four straight to push the advantage to 29-26, giving way to another Boroski layup. The pair carried the Mavericks through the remainder of the quarter, keying what became a 13-0 run and eventually a 15-2 charge to close the quarter with the hosts ahead 40-28.
“Maggie was consistent throughout the whole game, the difference in the second half was Mya turned it on,” Mann said. “
I mean, she had two points in the first half and had 20 by the end of the second half. Me and her mom (assistant coach Christina Dunlap) went over there and kind of tag-teamed her and said, ‘Look, we gotta have it here or we’re not gonna win this. We’re up, but if you continue to have two points, who’s gonna make up the difference? 
Maggie can’t score 60.'”
Following Baker’s injury a minute into the final quarter, East’s offense found a pulse.
A pair of Rylee Brown free throws sparked a 7-0 charge but Dunlap was there to slam the door each time.
Her 3 with just over four minutes to play extended the advantage to eight, later adding a layup with under three to play. That shot made it a 47-42 game after East had cut the deficit to three. From there Dunlap and Boroski combined to go 8 of 10 from the free throw line to close the game out.
The final frame proved to be East’s most productive offensively with 22 points on 30 percent shooting but it couldn’t make up for the hole dug in the first three frames.
“I’m not real happy with where our mindset is,” Davidson said. “We look like a team who, instead of going and winning a championship, we’re wanting somebody to give us one. I think it translates through everything we do. 
So, instead of taking shots with confidence, you’re halfway doing it. The first quarter, we didn’t take a shot, we threw a bunch of stuff at the rim hoping it would go in and we can’t play that way. That’s not who we are and late in the fourth quarter we started doing more of what we do, and shots started going in but I think it’s a mindset. We have to be in that all the time and this group right now is looking for a gift instead of going and taking it.”
For James Monroe it was a win in the battle for the top seed in the new regional format. It was also a signature victory on a statewide level.
“I was worried until 10 seconds left to go and finally Christina grabbed my calf and said, ‘I think we’ve done it,'” Mann said. “
I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I don’t know.’ I mean, we just kept telling them to dig and dig and we tried to take advantage of those timeouts whether it was mine or (Davidson) calling the timeouts. We looked gassed going into the second quarter and at the end of the second quarter we were gassed a little bit. We expected that. We’re still getting back in the groove after being out for snow. 
But we just continued to push, and I tell them all the time that third quarter, I’m from the school of Bobby Knight and those first three minutes of the third make all the difference. And they come out usually hustling for me.”
Blackburn led East with 12 points on 6 of 29 shooting while Alivia Monroe scored 10 points to go along with 19 rebounds.
“We’ll get back to work,” Davidson said. “I told them tomorrow, they’ll show me what they are, cause I’m gonna show them exactly what I am. I guarantee that we’re gonna work so, we’ll find out if they’re willing to match that. 
As it stands today, we’re not the best team in the region.”
WE: 9 10 9 22 – 50
JM: 10 11 19 15 – 55
Wyoming East
Cadee Blackburn 12, Kyndal Lusk 9, Abi Baker 7, Alivia Monroe 10, Gabby Cameron 7, Rylee Brown 5
James Monroe
Mya Dunlap 20, Maggie Boroski 26, Ava Dunlap 4, Bryleigh Thomas 2, Kendall Long 1, Rileigh Jackson 2
