So far this season, the East Webster Wolverines can sum up the year as being close.
EWHS lost two buzzer-beating ball games to Amory and Nettleton that were nice moral victories, but that’s not good enough for coach Jon Ginn. Unfortunately, that was the case again on Thursday night in night one of the East Webster Shootout Classic, as the Wolverines were in position late but came up short yet again with a 43-41 loss to Philadelphia.
Ginn is, quite frankly, tired of just being close. He’s ready for these losses to turn into wins, which means everybody was pulling together in the same direction.
“We didn’t have a good practice yesterday, and it followed us into the game (Thursday),” Ginn said. “I told them that if you want to compete at a high level, you’ve got to be at a high level all the time. We never could get anything going. It goes back to us not being mentally prepared to play, which falls on me.”
It was a game of frustrations for the Wolverines and especially late in the third quarter and into the fourth. After jumping out to a four-point lead late in the third, the Wolverines surrendered a surge from the Tornadoes that included a 5-0 run in the final minute to give Philly a lead it wouldn’t relinquish at 31-30.
EWHS struggled to score in the fourth, but when it did score, it couldn’t get the stops it needed to regain the game fully. Philly grew the lead as much as 42-34 on a 3-pointer with 2:45 left, but the Wolverines didn’t stop battling.
With the clock down to 10 seconds and the deficit at three points, the Wolverines got a steal with a chance to cut into it but traveled with the basketball. That was the last real chance to get even.
“Credit them, they kept us off-balanced all night, and we never could get in a flow or a rhythm. They make you play slow, and all of their scores are in the 30s and 40s. We couldn’t adjust to that style of play,” Ginn said. “We never did get into them pressure-wise like we do some other teams, and I was really disappointed with our defensive intensity, and that’s got to change.”
Cael Chrismond was the lone Wolverine in double figures in the low-scoring contest. He had 15 points in defeat.
The next night, there was nothing close about the game in the East Webster Shootout. Welcoming in Hamilton, the Wolverines had a huge first half, including 24 points in the second quarter on the way to an 82-53 win over the Lions.
EWHS took a 16-10 lead in the first quarter and would blow the game open in the second by pushing the lead out to 40-19 at the half. However, that was enough for the bench players to get some playing time the rest of the way.
The Wolverines forced 28 turnovers and turned those into 42 points in the win. Omarion O’Briant had 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting to lead the team and had six rebounds. Cade Morrow had 11 points, Jerkel Ivy finished with 10 points on 4-of-6, and Sam Brown also had 10 with a perfect 4-of-4 night while recording a double-double with ten rebounds.
The win improved the Wolverines to 4-5 on the season. The team is back to work this week, having traveled to French Camp Academy on Tuesday, and rivalry basketball picks up on Thursday when Eupora comes to town.
With district play on the horizon, Ginn wants his team to play a better basketball brand and as a team.
“We’ve just got to trust each other. We’ve got a lot of guys who can play, and we’re trying to play a lot of guys, and that can be a good problem, or that can be a bad problem,” Ginn said. “I’d like to see us come together more as a unit. Trust the guys going to replace you, be able to play your hardest, and if you’re not out there, be supportive on the bench. If we can do that, we can be successful.”
Girls Game
It was a perfect week for the Lady Wolverines in the Shootout. First, the team got two wins over Philadelphia and then Hamilton to get back on track.
It started with a 42-38 ball game against Philadelphia.
In another low-scoring game that preceded the boys’ contest, the Lady Wolverines relied heavily on the defense. They got a huge contribution from the bench on the way to a come-from-behind win over the Lady Tornadoes.
After a poor third quarter that saw EWHS trail 31-26 with just six points scored, coach Courtney O’briant-Wright challenged her team to get the job done. That’s exactly what they would do in the fourth.
A 10-2 run got EWHS the lead back, and the Lady Wolverines wouldn’t lose it as the defense got the stops it needed for the win.
“I feel like they responded really well. I told them going in that if they wanted to win the game, they needed to go out there and do what they needed to do,” O’Bryant-Wright said. “I had a freshman in Sylar Vaughn step up, and Shameriah Culpepper helped the team also. The girls that came off the bench, like Larkin Connor, Sylar Vaughn, and Jasie Rae (Flora), came out and did what they needed. I told them we needed a spark, and they gave it to us.”
After leading 13-9 in the first and 22-17 at halftime, the Lady Wolverines needed a wake-up call following a slow third quarter. Da’Nasia Logan got the team the lead back on a 3-pointer with 4:24 left to make it 36-33, and Culpepper would take double teams and dish off a trio of assists to her teammates to help maintain that lead. There were some big defensive plays down the stretch from Logan, Conner, and Karra Mae Johnson for the win.
The defense was incredible in the second half against Hamilton, as the team gave up seven points combined in a 57-32 victory.
The Lady Wolverines shot just 29% in the game, but the defense forced 42 turnovers and won the rebounds 50-42. Culpepper was dominant with 25 points in the win, and she pulled down seven rebounds with three steals. Logan had 16 points, eight steals, and five rebounds.
The two wins got the team back over .500 at 5-4, and they also play FCA and Eupora this week.
