East Webster is taking advantage of the turn of the calendar about as well as any basketball program in Class2A.
Both the boys and girls teams ended last year with a couple of losses in the final week but have turned around this month and put together a combined record of 11-0. Included in that were three district wins for each team that locked up the No. 1 seed in Region 2 with a game to spare.
The Wolverine boys are currently in the midst of a five-game winning streak and finished off a season sweep over Philadelphia on Saturday by knocking off the Tornadoes at their place 61-58.
While head coach Jon Ginn will always take the win, it’s the way the game ended that didn’t sit well with him. It was a game that EWHS once led by 20 points but the Wolverines allowed Philadelphia to close it to a one possession game late before the clock ran out.
“It opens my eyes to the fact that we’ve got to come in and work on some details,” Ginn said. “If you’re painting the wall it’s easy to use the roller but the trim work is where you finish and we’ve got to finish. We’re going to go over a lot of things with our offense and what we do when you’ve got a lead. It’s always a plus when you see those problems and you’re winning.”
Other than giving up the big lead, EWHS played a pretty strong game. The Wolverines shot 56% from the field and hit 6-of-15 3-pointers. They had 30 rebounds but gave up 17 offensive boards to the Tornadoes and turned the ball over 23 times.
Chandler Hodges led the team with 20 points on 7-of-9shooting while Reid Gatlin had 17 points on 5-of-8 3-pointers and Blake Slay finished with 15 points. The victory moved EWHS to 11-4 on the season as they close out Region 2 play on Tuesday against J.Z. George for Senior Night and travel to Houlka on Thursday.
Girls
The EWHS girls continued their red hot run by winning two more games this week and improving to 12-3 on the year. It improved the winning streak to start 2021 to seven-straight games for the Lady Wolverines as they sit inside the top five in 2A by multiple publications.
Starting off the week for the Lady Wolverines was a matchup against nearby Choctaw County. EWHS raced out to a 22-7 lead after one quarter and never looked back in a 54-29 blowout win.
The Lady Wolverines gave up just 10 points in the entire first half as they led 47-10 and the clock rolled with the benches cleared in the second half as they earned an easy victory. 13 players got in the game in the win for EWHS as Shan Culpepper scored 18 points in just 11 minutes. Shameriah Culpepper added 13 points as the two combined to shoot 10-of-14 from the field.
Whitney Winter also scored in double digits with 17 points in limited action.
Against the Tornadoes, EWHS’ had a similar turnout as the boys team as they build a lead up to 43-33 heading into the final quarter before winning the game 52-47. Like the boys, the Lady Wolverines gave up too many offensive rebounds as Philadelphia was able to corral 26 of them and EWHS also had 21 turnovers. Lauren Graves led the team with 16 points and six steals and Shan Culpepper finished with a double-double scoring 10 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
There are some things that Ginn wants both teams to clean up as crunch time hits in the next couple of weeks, but the coach has been excited with the last month of play for his teams. The girls have especially started to hit their stride.
“I feel like we’re starting to make an upward climb. Since Shameriah has gotten back and is gaining confidence in her knee, that helps us tremendously because it gives us more depth and more height. Our rebounding has gotten better and our scoring because we can score in ways other girls couldn’t,” Ginn said. “Hopefully we can hit our peak and our stride going into district tournament.”
