Gallery by Heather BelcherĀ
New Richmond – The message Wyoming East coach Angie Boninsegna has preached all season is “Growth.”
Her Lady Warriors, missing four starters from last year’s state championship team, grew up a lot Thursday night.
The Class AA No. 3-ranked Lady Warriors toppled Class AAA No. 3 Logan 53-46, handing the Lady Wildcats their first loss of the season.
A rematch of a Dec. 30 game between the two – won 63-48 by Logan – neither team led by more than eight points.
Logan scored the first four points of the contest on buckets by Peyton Ilderton and Emma Elkins but six straight from East gave the hosts the lead for good.
At various points the Lady Wildcats threatened to retake it but each time they did East had an answer.
“I’ve told you all year it’s about growth,” Boninsegna said. “We’re going to get better. We’re young. We’re going to make some mental errors but the growth from when we played the first game to now – when people made a run at us – is astronomical I think. Do we have a ways to go? Yeah, but against Shady and Mingo when they made runs, we were more confident this time. We’ve got to build on that and continue to grow.”
The Lady Warriors’ advantage swelled to eight points as the earlier 4-0 deficit turned into a 12-4 advantage with buckets from Colleen Lookabill and Kayley Bane highlighting the run but the story of the quarter was their defensive play.
The sharpshooting Wildcats, who connected on seven 3-pointers in the teams’ earlier meeting, went 0-for-7 from beyond the arc in the opening frame, converting on just two of their 15 attempts from the field in the quarter.
Making matters worse was the amount of turnovers committed by the visitors, which tallied to eight heading into the second quarter.
“We settled a lot,” Logan coach Kevin Gertz said. “When we attacked we weren’t real strong with it and we didn’t put the ball in the square. I probably used all of the ink out of one expo marker drawing the square at halftime. If you think I’m lying you can ask any of them. I was a little smart Alec. But it’s a tough place to play.”
Despite their offensive struggles, the visitors trailed just 12-6 after one and 20-14 at the break.
The Lady Warriors weren’t immune to the shooting struggles on the evening either. They went to the line 11 times in the opening half, converting on just 1 of their 11 attempts but shot much better from the field, hitting at a 53 percent clip inside the arc.
Out of the break the hosts threatened to pull away after buckets by Bane and Hannah Blankenship extended the lead to seven, but six straight points from Ilderton slashed the deficit to a point. A timeout from Boninsegna helped weather the storm as a pair of free throws from Cadee Blackburn and five straight points from Maddie Clark pushed the lead back to seven.
Ilderton again had an answer with four straight but Blankenship, East’s lone senior, nailed a 3-pointer to steady the run.
The contributions were welcome ones from the sharpshooter, who struggled early in the season but made her mark Thursday. She grabbed 10 rebounds, helped initiate the East offense when Logan played tight defense and came up with a key steal with her team clinging to a three-point lead late.
“Really I’ve just been focusing on my rebounding and defensive effort,” Blankenship said. “I’ve been trying to take charges and buy into the defensive side of the ball. It’s all about effort and heart. I’ve been going through a lot personally and then I got Covid, so this was my second game back and it was a big game for us.”
Logan was able to cut the deficit down to three with 30 seconds left and had possession of the ball with a chance to tie but a loose ball, poked free by Lookabill with 16 seconds left, set up an inbounds play where Blankenship tossed it to a streaking Clark who iced the game with a three-point play.
And this from Maddie Clark will salt it #wvgirlsbb pic.twitter.com/kjrm2vA7pO
— Tyler Jackson (@TJack94) January 14, 2022
Clark, who finished with a team-high 18 points, struggled from the free throw line in the first half, converting on just one of her eight attempts but rebounded after the intermission with a 7 of 9 showing from the charity stripe. Blackburn was also crucial in the win, connecting on five of her six free throw attempts.
“What can you say?” Boninsegna said. “Cadee Blackburn, Maddie and Hannah were all key down the stretch. Cadee hit a pair when we were up one. I was really proud of her and the team. I was proud of the bench too. I thought we were really emotionally in it. It helps when you’ve got energy from the bench.”
Logan finished the game shooting 33 percent from the field, making just one shot outside of the paint. East shot 44 percent from the field, making 54 percent of its shots from inside the arc.
“We shoot the ball pretty well most nights,” Gertz said. “We made one shot outside the paint according to our shot chart. If we made another outside it wasn’t far from outside the block. We banked in a short wing jumper and that’s the only thing outside. We’ve got to be ready to shoot and shoot with confidence and we didn’t tonight.”
Ilderton led all scorers with 20 points, the only Lady Wildcat to eclipse six points. Clark led East with 18 while Bane added 11.
Wyoming East improves to 6-2 and will return to action on Jan. 20 at Summers County. The Lady Warriors’ game against Princeton that was scheduled to be played on Tuesday will be rescheduled for a later date.
Logan drops to 10-1 and will host Wayne on Jan. 19.
Email: Tyler jackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
L: 6 8 17 14 – 46
WE: 12 8 17 14 – 53
Logan
Natalie Blankenship 2, Abbie Myers 5, Halle Crouse 4, Peyton Ilderton 20, Emma Elkins 6, Autumn Adkins 2, Bam Mosey 6
Wyoming East
Hannah Blankenship 8, Maddie Clark 18, Kayley Bane 11, Colleen Lookabill 7, Cadee Blackburn 7, Alivia Monroe 2
3-point goal – L: 0: WE: 2 (Lookabill, Blankenship).