Brock Netter, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
WAVERLY — The same way that Waverly controlled the game on Thursday is also the same way the Tigers nearly lost it.
The team’s ability to play fast can be a catch-22.
The Tigers never stop running and simply wear teams down late into ballgames. But on the flip side, when it comes to tight scores, where every possession matters in the final minutes, playing fast sometimes leads to bad decisions.
West was able to speed Waverly’s offense up in the second half on Thursday and climb back into the game — after trailing by as many as 16 points.
But the Tigers, in the end, held it together and fended off the Senators by a 58-56 final, moving into first place in the SOC III.
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
“We know we have a long road to go, but it’s nice to be at the top and for the girls to experience that. We’re definitely not sneaking up on anybody now,” Waverly coach John Bonifield said. “But I think we’ve earned that. We like to have that pressure, it’s earned. It’s a reward for all the hard work they put into this season thus far.”
Owning first place in the the league standings is uncharted territory for the Tigers (11-2, 4-0 SOC III). Bonifield says that hasn’t happened since the early 2000’s.
And, after years of chasing the top spot, they’re now the ones being chased.
“This is the first time in my career that we’ve been first place in the league, let alone had a winning record in league play,” Waverly’s Paige O’Bryant said. “We had a great practice, and felt really prepared coming into the game. We knew how important this was for us and our community. The job isn’t finished at all, but it’s a great feeling right now.”
The game was slow in the beginning as Waverly held a 3-2 lead over four minutes into the contest. West (10-3, 3-1 SOC III) later took a 9-7 lead with a layup from Bayleigh Pistole.
Waverly, however, began to kick things into high gear as Paige O’Bryant, Sadie Royster and Taryn Gillott combined for a 9-0 run to end the first quarter with a 16-9 lead.
Then O’Bryant started to completely take over.
Waverly’s senior leader simply couldn’t be stopped in the second. One bucket after another, she scored nine of the Tigers’ 12 points as the lead extended to 28-15. At that point, Waverly was shooting 71 percent from the floor.
PHOTOS: Images from Waverly’s win over West
West’s Hailey Carver and Macey Whisman combined for a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to 28-20, but that was the closest PW got before halftime as Waverly took a 35-24 lead into the break.
Waverly’s momentum didn’t slow down in the third, either, as it opened on a 7-2 run, pushing the advantage to 42-27 behind five points from O’Bryant.
“We were playing with so much adrenaline in the first half, and we didn’t feel tired or anything,” O’Bryant said. “I know my speed is an advantage, so getting out in transition really helped and I knew if I got a rebound that I had to push the ball up as fast as I could.”
The Tigers’ lead later ballooned to 45-29 before Whisman connected on back-to-back buckets, ending the third with the Tigers ahead 45-33.
West changed its approach in the fourth, implemented a full court press and now the game was truly about to heat up.
Pistole buried a 3 to cut the Tigers’ lead to nine early in the fourth, and the Senators began matching speed with pressure, forcing the Tigers into costly turnovers.
It helped West chip away.
Pistole and Whisman led the charge on a 11-4 run, trimming the score to just 49-47 and, without a doubt, the Senators had all momentum with three minutes left.
“Basketball is a game of runs, and we talked during halftime about not being satisfied,” Bonifield said. “If West was going to make a run, we had to extend the lead and make it a big run. We got up by 16, but they put pressure on us and scratched their way back into the game and they deserve credit for that.”
However, O’Bryant connected on a critical bucket through contact before later adding two free throws, keeping the Tigers in front at 54-51.
She’d later hit two more at the line, as did Calli Knight, to put the Tigers up 58-54. West scored on the other end to make it a two-point game, but with only three seconds left, Waverly just held the ball out of bounds and let the clock run out for the win.
“We’re just in a good rhythm, a good mindset right now. The ball seems to be finding us at the right time, and it was very fortunate tonight that there wasn’t about another minute left on the clock, because I don’t know how it would have ended up,” Bonifield said. “We didn’t do things at the end that I was particularly fond of, but we learned through those in that pressure situation. When we overthink it, we tend to lose that athleticism. We always try to tell them to just play. Be who you are. Closing out games, sometimes it gets a little scarier or a little hectic because it’s like trying to tame wild horses at the end, and that’s just not what they’re used to doing. But we found a way to make a play when we needed to.”
O’Bryant finished with a game-high 31 points and six rebounds, while Royster added 13 points and seven rebounds to the mix.
For West, Pistole finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and three assists, while Whisman added 15 points on the night.
The Tigers earned a 57-51 victory over Gallia Academy on Saturday, and return to action on Monday at home against Wheelersburg. West, who lost 58-49 to Alexander on Saturday, aims to rebound that same evening at Valley.
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