Lady Wolverines claw, scratch, but come up short

MABEN – It's become custom for East Webster's girls hoops squad to earn a firstround playoff host in Cumberland and the Lady Wolverines got just that on Tuesday night against Walnut.

While the home court advantage played its factor in the game at times, the Lady Wolverines spent most of the game playing the role of underdog.

On two separate occasions, East Webster had to fight back from double-digit deficits and got the game within striking distance. Those battles took more out of the Lady Wolverines than they knew until the final buzzer and their scratching and clawing came up short as the season ended in 63-55 heartache.

“I'm disappointed because I felt like we were so close to being able to get over the hump,” East Webster head coach Jon Ginn said. “We played a lot of teams like this where we would scare them, (but) we just couldn't quite pull those games out.”

The Lady Wolverines (2111) can look back at field goal shooting as a big culprit in the defeat. They were 18-of-57 (32 percent) with many of those being within the paint. The 3-point shooting was also an issue as East Webster went 5-of-22 (23 percent) in the game.

From the second quarter on, though, the long range shooting was much better than it was to begin the game. The Lady Wolverines started the game 0-for-8 and gave up four 3-pointers on defense as Walnut had jumped out to a 20-5 lead. It was the first 3-pointer of the game by East Webster that got them going as Mariah Bell made one at the end of the first to cut the lead to 20-8.

The Lady Wolverines followed with two 3-pointers at the start of the second from Isha Patterson and Whitney Winter and that sparked a 14-1 run that cut the lead to 21-19. It was a trap defense that knocked Walnut off balance and East Webster was down 24-19 at the half.

“Early on, they hit some big shots and we couldn't seem to get anything going on the offensive end," Ginn said. "I thought when we changed defenses in the second quarter, it made a big difference. It really bothered