Lady Wolverines control game after quick start by Lady Eagles
MABEN – Rakaysha Triplett scored the first two baskets for the Eupora Lady Eagles on Saturday night and it appeared, after two possessions at least, that the result might be different against the East Webster Lady Wolverines.
However, the Lady Wolverines went on an 11-0 run at that point to take control of the game and defeated their rival for the second straight night 52-39. It was only one point less than Friday’s result of 53-39 in favor of East Webster.
Eupora head coach Cody Ramer was encouraged about the start, but was concerned about how his team finished the first half.
“We’ve been struggling either first half or second half,” Ramer said. “It seemed like tonight it started out good. In the second quar
ter, we went flat and they went off to a big lead.”
Shan Culpepper scored nine of her gamehigh 15 points as the Lady Wolverines established a 34-18 halftime lead.
East Webster head coach Jon Ginn told his team following the game that “especially the first two quarter were two of the better ones we’ve played.”
“I thought we executed well and thought we defended well,” Ginn said.
The Lady Wolverines led 46-27 at the end of three quarters, then the Lady Eagles made a fourth-quarter run that closed the final gap.
Eupora outscored East Webster 12-6 in the fourth quarter.
“We had a little bit of a letdown in the fourth quarter when we could have put a period at the end of the sentence,” Ginn said.
“We got away from some of things we were doing, got in a hurry and started playing like we were down instead of up.”
Whitney Winter, who was second in the scoring column for the Lady Wolverines with nine points, said the intent was to treat both matchups against the Lady Eagles the same as far as preparation.
“We all came out and did what we did last night,” Winter said. “We jumped on them from the start and that’s what we did that we worked hard for.”
There were no Eupora players to score in double digits as Nadia Coffey just missed that mark with nine points. Arterria Hill had eight points.
East Webster improved to 9-3 overall, while the Lady Eagles slipped to 6-5. The game did not count in the Class 2A, Region 2 standings.
Ramer is anxious to see the progress of Eupora and looks for it to put four quarters together.
“If we can be consistent all four quarters, we’ll be fine,” Ramer said.