by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
WILLIAMSPORT — Logan Elm had the first couple of baskets and never trailed Saturday night but had to hold off a persistent Westfall squad to leave with a 53-42 win.
“The first win is always the hardest one of the season,” Logan Elm coach Mike Schultz said. (It also was his first win as head coach.) “They battled a lot of adversity throughout and stayed together. A lot of these kids, having the experience they did, even though they are young, having that experience really helped carry through.
“We have a couple nice ball handlers with Kimmy (Petty) and Kiki (Ingram), and a lot of good complimentary players as well.”
Kennedy Groff had the first bucket of the night and Petty had a three for a 5-0 LE lead and the Braves were up 11-5 at the of the first quarter.
A 2 and a 3 from Ingram pushed the LE lead to 11 points early in the second and the score stood at 23-14 at the half.
Westfall cut the deficit to six points twice in the third before the period ended with LE up 34-26.
The Mustangs got a three-pointer from Adrian Moehl a few seconds into the final quarter to cut the difference to five points but that was as close they could get.
LE hit eight of 12 free throws in the final two minutes to seal the win.
“We just couldn’t make two or three shots in-a-row to cut that lead,” Westfall coach Joe Patete said. “We’d get it to eight, they’d get it to 12 and we’d get it back to eight — we couldn’t make a stop at the defensive end and couldn’t make a shot when we needed to make one to cut that lead to really put pressure on them in the last couple of minutes of the game.”
While Patete felt the frustration of not being able get any closer to the Braves, Schultz felt it from not being able to pull away from the Mustangs.
“There were times when we would come down and hit a three and I’m thinking now the separation is starting to come and we would lose a little bit of containment on the defensive end,” Schultz said. “They did have some good shooters and every time they shot it, I thought it had the potential to go in.”
Nine points in the second quarter and seven in the fourth helped Ingram to a game-high 22 points. Groff and Petty each had eight for the Braves.
Moehl led Westfall with 17 while Aubrey Clark and Paige Weiss each had seven.
LE’s pressure defense gave the Mustangs some trouble on Saturday, but it also resulted in a number of fouls and Westfall was shooting bonus free throws in the second and third quarters. (A rule change for high school basketball this season has a team shooting two free throws once the other team has committed five fouls in a quarter – the fouls then reset in the next quarter.)
“What we’re really trying to strive for is our pressure defense. With that, we have to get to the point where we understand how the officials are going to call it,” Schultz said. “With the new rule, with the five fouls, that allows any team that is behind to get points without the time going.”
Westfall took advantage of the situation to add nine points from the stripe in the middle quarters.
After starting on the road Wednesday night with a 37-34 loss to Washington Court House, Patete liked the difference he saw in his team.
“I thought our effort was a lot better than when we played Court House on Wednesday,” he said. “What we need to continue to work on is our help-side defense. Ankrom and Petty did a very good job of isolating one side of the floor and exposing us on the weak side. That’s something we’re going to come in on Monday and work at getting better at. Those were two of the best guards we’ll see all season.
“The atmosphere here tonight was phenomenal,” Patete added. “I hope that the home crowd continues to come out and support us, it was a great atmosphere for the girls. We can’t simulate in practice the environment we had in here with the officials and how Logan Elm did a very good job of being physical with us. I thought our girls never stopped playing hard and really had a great effort to keep it close.”
Logan Elm ended the night with a 28-25 rebounding edge led by Imgram with nine. Clark led Westfall with eight.
Logan Elm (1-0) hosts Washington Court House Tuesday while Westfall (0-2) opens league play hosting Piketon on Tuesday.
Logan Elm 53, Westfall 42
Logan Elm — Kimberly Petty 1-5-8, Hannah Rhoads 1-0-3, Kiki Ingram 8-4-22, Clara Wilson 1-0-2, Kennedy Groff 4-0-8, Emma Largent1-1-3, Gillian Savage 1-0-2, Maggie Wilson 2-1-5. Three-point goals — Petty, Rhoads, Ingram (2). Total — 19-40 11-17 53.
Westfall — Marianna Packer 2-0-6, Aubrey Clark 3-1-7, Reese Moehl 1-3-5, Adrian Moehl 6-4-17, Paige Weiss 3-1-7. Three-point goals — Haynes-Lee (4), L Baker, Wooten (2), J Baker. Total — 15-40 7-9 45.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Logan Elm 11 12 11 19 53
Westfall 5 9 12 16 42
