Close call
Lady Chargers build 18-point lead, hold on for 44-38 win
By Jimmy LewisStaff Writer
Any extended analysis as to why the Wilson Christian varsity girls basketball team found itself in a fourth-quarter game Thursday night can quickly be put to bed.
Head coach Brian Trull will take care of that.
"That’s completely on me,” he said after the Lady Chargers finished off a 44-38 win over Rocky Mount Academy. "I want to try to get people some playing time and try to keep some balance and let some people play that may not always get to play a whole lot. And it got closer than it probably should have. So, completely on me.”
After WCA heated up in the fourth quarter from behind the 3-point line, the outcome appeared to be all but decided after senior Kelli Brantley’s trey put the Lady Chargers up 41-23 with 3:45 to play. But RMA chopped the lead in half over the next two minutes and entered fouling mode with 61 seconds to go. There, Wilson Christian (13-5) temporarily left the door ajar by missing front ends of one-and-ones. Once RMA’s Allison Barnes got a putback and Katie Gutshall hit a 3-pointer that glanced off the rim and in, it was suddenly a four-point game.
"We’ve been talking all season about playing four quarters and fighting,” RMA head coach Brent Acker said. "We don’t fear losing as long as we go down fighting. That’s what I told them going in, I just said we have an option. We can fight to the end, or we can lose by 30. What do we want to do? And they responded.”
Lady Chargers senior Presley Bissett, who finished with a game-high 20 points on five 3-pointers, made one of two at the line. Yet on the defensive end, she fouled RMA’s Madison Glover in 3-point territory with 15.1 seconds left. Glover made just one of three, and eighth grader Ashley Hartsfield made a pair of free throws to account for the final margin and send RMA to 3-11 overall.
Before then, Wilson Christian had matters well in hand after a methodical start. Both teams struggled to score as the Lady Chargers were kept out of their intended business of easy baskets off of steals and in transition. The Lady Chargers took a 13-8 lead after one quarter, but began to speed up a deliberate Lady Eagle squad in the second quarter. There, Wilson Christian made its first four shots of the quarter and forced RMA into 11 of its 19 first-half giveaways. The resultant points off turnovers boosted WCA to a 25-10 halftime lead.
Proving problematic for the Lady Eagles in their zone defense was rotating out to cover WCA shooters in the corners. That allowed the Lady Chargers to burn the nets for seven treys, including Bissett’s five. Hartsfield had the other two, and her latter 3-pointer sent WCA to a 32-16 third-quarter lead. RMA’s Katie Gutshall, who had 13 of her 15 points in the second half, responded with a long-range shot of her own to leave the Lady Chargers with a 32-21 lead entering the fourth.
"That corner 3-point shot is supposedly the most difficult, but (Bissett) can shoot it,” Trull said. "They have a hard time rotating out on that, she does a good job moving and getting to the open spot and then, what did she have? Five threes tonight?”
Bissett wasn’t concerned about ultimately pulling out the win despite watching from the sideline for a spell in the fourth.
"I knew that we would win because we have a pretty solid team,” she said. "I was like, ‘is he going to put the starters back in so we could get a bigger lead?’ But we pulled it through, so that’s really all that matters.”
WCA returns to North Carolina Christian School Association 2-A District 3 play Friday night at Raleigh Friendship Christian.
jlewis@wilsontimes.com | 265-7807 | Twitter: @JimmyLewisWT
RMA (38)
High 6, Perkins 4, Dunn, Gutshall 15, Barnes 6, Chandler 2, Gulabrai 2, Glover 3.
WILSON CHR. (44)
Hartsfield 10, Barnes, Lamm 2, Attoe 3, Hunter 6, Bissett 20, Carr, Brantley 3, Truesdale, Woodard, Scott.
Score by quarters:
Rocky Mount Acad. 8 2 11 17 — 38
WCA 13 12 7 12 — 44
Lady Chargers build 18-point lead, hold on for 44-38 win
By Jimmy LewisStaff Writer
Any extended analysis as to why the Wilson Christian varsity girls basketball team found itself in a fourth-quarter game Thursday night can quickly be put to bed.
Head coach Brian Trull will take care of that.
"That’s completely on me,” he said after the Lady Chargers finished off a 44-38 win over Rocky Mount Academy. "I want to try to get people some playing time and try to keep some balance and let some people play that may not always get to play a whole lot. And it got closer than it probably should have. So, completely on me.”
After WCA heated up in the fourth quarter from behind the 3-point line, the outcome appeared to be all but decided after senior Kelli Brantley’s trey put the Lady Chargers up 41-23 with 3:45 to play. But RMA chopped the lead in half over the next two minutes and entered fouling mode with 61 seconds to go. There, Wilson Christian (13-5) temporarily left the door ajar by missing front ends of one-and-ones. Once RMA’s Allison Barnes got a putback and Katie Gutshall hit a 3-pointer that glanced off the rim and in, it was suddenly a four-point game.
"We’ve been talking all season about playing four quarters and fighting,” RMA head coach Brent Acker said. "We don’t fear losing as long as we go down fighting. That’s what I told them going in, I just said we have an option. We can fight to the end, or we can lose by 30. What do we want to do? And they responded.”
Lady Chargers senior Presley Bissett, who finished with a game-high 20 points on five 3-pointers, made one of two at the line. Yet on the defensive end, she fouled RMA’s Madison Glover in 3-point territory with 15.1 seconds left. Glover made just one of three, and eighth grader Ashley Hartsfield made a pair of free throws to account for the final margin and send RMA to 3-11 overall.
Before then, Wilson Christian had matters well in hand after a methodical start. Both teams struggled to score as the Lady Chargers were kept out of their intended business of easy baskets off of steals and in transition. The Lady Chargers took a 13-8 lead after one quarter, but began to speed up a deliberate Lady Eagle squad in the second quarter. There, Wilson Christian made its first four shots of the quarter and forced RMA into 11 of its 19 first-half giveaways. The resultant points off turnovers boosted WCA to a 25-10 halftime lead.
Proving problematic for the Lady Eagles in their zone defense was rotating out to cover WCA shooters in the corners. That allowed the Lady Chargers to burn the nets for seven treys, including Bissett’s five. Hartsfield had the other two, and her latter 3-pointer sent WCA to a 32-16 third-quarter lead. RMA’s Katie Gutshall, who had 13 of her 15 points in the second half, responded with a long-range shot of her own to leave the Lady Chargers with a 32-21 lead entering the fourth.
"That corner 3-point shot is supposedly the most difficult, but (Bissett) can shoot it,” Trull said. "They have a hard time rotating out on that, she does a good job moving and getting to the open spot and then, what did she have? Five threes tonight?”
Bissett wasn’t concerned about ultimately pulling out the win despite watching from the sideline for a spell in the fourth.
"I knew that we would win because we have a pretty solid team,” she said. "I was like, ‘is he going to put the starters back in so we could get a bigger lead?’ But we pulled it through, so that’s really all that matters.”
WCA returns to North Carolina Christian School Association 2-A District 3 play Friday night at Raleigh Friendship Christian.
jlewis@wilsontimes.com | 265-7807 | Twitter: @JimmyLewisWT
RMA (38)
High 6, Perkins 4, Dunn, Gutshall 15, Barnes 6, Chandler 2, Gulabrai 2, Glover 3.
WILSON CHR. (44)
Hartsfield 10, Barnes, Lamm 2, Attoe 3, Hunter 6, Bissett 20, Carr, Brantley 3, Truesdale, Woodard, Scott.
Score by quarters:
Rocky Mount Acad. 8 2 11 17 — 38
WCA 13 12 7 12 — 44
