Gallery by Heather Belcher
New Richmond – For Westside it was like somebody opened the door in the second quarter and chilled its offense to the 27 degree temperatures outside the gym at Wyoming East.
Playing each other on the campus of a Wyoming County school for the first time since Jan. 11, 2022, Wyoming East used an 18-0 run that spanned across the middle two quarters to claim a 50-41 victory over the Renegades Saturday in New Richmond.
In front of a boisterous crowd, Westside grabbed the momentum when Brayden French connected on a 3 with 3:25 to go in the half, capping a 7-0 Renegades run that put the visitors up 22-17.
Their next field goal and points didn’t come until the 2:49 mark of the third quarter with 16 missed shot attempts in between.
“I think this is the first game we’ve had all season where our long shots have not went down a little more consistently,” Westside head coach Tom Evans said. “And I don’t really think we were guarded all that tight out on the 3-point line. We’re getting some decent looks, but they weren’t making them as consistently as we have been and I think they started kind of second guessing the shots. And then we pulled a couple bad 3-pointers that were just back breakers that gave them the ball back.”
It was a turn of fortunes for the Renegades who started hot, hitting at a 50 percent clip through the first quarter to lead 13-12. East by comparison was just 3 of 15 (20 percent) from the field in the opening quarter but four offensive rebounds and six Westside turnovers were enough to keep the Warriors within striking distance.
Austin Bishop accounted for seven of those first-quarter points, hitting exclusively on jump shots while East had four different players score in the quarter.
Zack Hunt nailed a 3 for East early in the second quarter to give the Warriors a 17-15 lead before Bryson Blankenship tied it with a layup and Brayden French followed with a jumper and a 3. The offensive drought started there and East took advantage.
Of the Warriors’ 18 field goals on the evening, seven came in the second quarter with four of the five starters all registering points. The highlight of the frame came right before the break.
Following a Cole Lambert Layup that gave East the lead and a Bryson Huff 3, Huff dished to an open Konnor Fox who threw down a two-handed dunk for the final points of the half.
“Guys were just pushing it and attacking and we were settling too far outside early,” East head coach Derek Brooks said. “They were giving us the 3 but we weren’t making them. I think we were 4 for 14 in the first half from the 3-point line, but then we started to hit them there early in the second half and late in the first half. I think Huff hit one there before halftime and then right out of the break, he hit one I think on the first possession. Those were big shots that kind of propelled us to the lead and kind of pushed it out of their hands. I mean, they did get it back to what five or six there but no closer.”
East’s shooting woes resumed in the third quarter as it hit on just 4 of 15 attempts in the frame. Westside managed to lower the bar, though. The shot that snapped the eight-minute scoring skid was the Renegades’ lone field goal make of the 12 they hoisted in the quarter.
“I think that’s the type of team we are – a defensive team,” Brooks said. “We’ve held probably four teams to 30 points or so this year. So I mean, that’s kind of where we’d like it. I wanted to hold them in the 30s there and we gave up an offensive rebound and a kick out for 3 to get it to 41 but overall I’m impressed with our defensive effort.”
Westside, trailing by 12 after three quarters, cut the deficit to five points with 3:02 remaining but Cole Lambert closed the game out for the hosts, scoring nine of his game-high 17 points in the final frame. All three of his field goals in the fourth came at the rim and when he didn’t convert he drew the foul, shooting from the charity stripe five times in the final stanza.
“We’ve had that issue all season,” Evans said. “And I told them at halftime that straight-line drive is killing us with our big guy pulling up and just leaving either (Fox) for a layup or you guys are taking the other approach and letting the driver (Lambert) just to shoot the layup. It’s something simple we’ve got to work on, just rotation.”
Neither team shot the ball well throughout the evening with Westside finishing 16 of 47 (34 percent) from the field and East following with an 18 of 54 (33 percent) showing. But turnovers (East won that battle 12-7) and the offensive rebounding numbers hampered the Renegades.
East finished with four offensive boards each in the first three quarters, generating the extra shot attempts that made the difference.
“That’s been our point of emphasis all week,” Brooks said. “I haven’t felt like all year we’ve been the team to get on the floor and get to those 50-50 balls and we’re the type of team that has to have those because we don’t score a lot. We don’t shoot it at a high clip. I think we’ve had several games in the 30s as well so we’ve got to work on the defensive side and we have got to get loose balls and get every possession we can.”
Huff (13) and Fox (12) joined Lambert in double figures.
Austin Bishop was the only Renegade in double figures with 10 points after scoring seven in the first quarter.
W: 13 9 4 15 – 41
WE: 12 16 9 13 – 50
Westside
Austin Bishop 10, B. Waldron 5, Bryson Blankenship 8, Kadien Vance 8, Brayden French 7, Coltin Lester 3
Wyoming East
Cole Lambert 17, Zack Hunt 8, Bryson Huff 13, Konnor Fox 12
