Déjà vu set in for the East Webster Lady Wolverines on Saturday night when South Pontotoc was in town for the second-straight year.
EWHS and the Lady Cougars played in the East Webster Christmas Tournament championship a season ago and the Lady Wolverines had a heartbreaking loss after holding a lead late. This game wasn’t for a championship, but it hurt just the same.
A missed 3-pointer went off the backside of the rim for South Pontotoc only to find a friendly Cougar player who dumped it to a free throw line shooter who nailed the game-winning shot at the buzzer. It was a 34-33 loss for the Lady Wolverines and one that will sting for some time.
“A lot of it was something that we failed to do all game long and that was rebound,” coach Jon Ginn said. “I told them when we decide that we want it worse than the other team rebounding wise, we’ll take a step up and be a much better team. I was proud of our fight, we just gave up too many rebounds, missed too many free throws.”
The Lady Wolverines (9-6) had their chances to take home a marquee non-conference win against a very good South Pontotoc team. They led by nine points in the fourth quarter and had completely shut down the Lady Cougars’ offense, but the press became an issue, as did rebounding the ball.
Turnovers and offensive rebounds slowly added up and a 29-20 lead turned into a 32-31 deficit with 2 minutes remaining. The Lady Wolverines took the lead with under a minute left on a bucket from Shan Culpepper off of a steal, but she missed the front end of a one-and-one on the free throw line to allow SPHS to have the last shot with under 20 seconds left and they hit the shot that mattered.
It was still the lowest offensive total of the year for SPHS (12-6) and they scored just two points in the third quarter after trailing 16-15 at halftime. That bucket came in the final second of the third.
Culpepper was the leading scorer for the Lady Wolverines with 15 points. Meri-Grace Gregg added 10 points.
The Friday night game for the girls squad was a positive outcome, however. The Lady Wolverines obliterated Calhoun Academy 62-7 in a game that Ginn was able to play many of his bench players for most of the game to get good experience.
It was 26-4 after the first quarter and Calhoun Academy didn’t score a point again until the fourth.
Shameriah Culpepper had 14 points and Shan Culpepper finished with 13.
BOYS
In the final game of the two-day East Webster Christmas Classic event, the Wolverines and Wildcats met in a game that saw Louisville get hot from 3-point range and leave EWHS in the dust when four quarters were finished.
The Wildcats hit seven 3-pointers in the first half and also made things difficult for the Wolverines on the boards as they pulled away and kept EWHS from staying in the game after the first quarter. A 13-11 deficit grew to the point where the Wolverines couldn’t stay in striking distance despite not letting it get too far out of hand.
“We knew that they were going to hit some shots, they’re a really good shooting team. I told our guys that the thing we couldn’t do was turn the ball over or give them second opportunities,” Ginn said. “I thought early in the game we were patient and doing what we wanted them to do, but we stopped doing fundamental things that you have to do to win.”
EWHS had a nice 10-0 run in the first quarter to take an early 11-8 but they couldn’t keep pace with the quicker Louisville guards. By halftime, three-consecutive 3-pointers from LHS’ Tyrell Thames pushed the lead out to double digits for good at 30-18.
The lead grew to as much as 22 points in the third quarter but the Wolverines fought to keep it close enough at 48-32 after three quarters.
“There were a handful of times where we were gritty and cut into their lead a little bit but we’ve got to get tougher,” Ginn said. “We’re getting better, but we’re just not tough right now. When we get some of our freshmen and sophomores playing like juniors and seniors we’ll have a chance to be ok.”
Leading the way for the Wolverines (6-10) was Reid Gatlin who scored 13 points. Sedrick Taylor had 12 points and Hayes Fason had 10 points in the loss.
Like the girls, the boys team blew away Calhoun Academy on Friday night. The visitors scored no more than seven points in any of the four quarters and EWHS took an easy 69-22 victory. 10 different players got into the scoring column for the Wolverines led by Reid Gatlin who had 16 points on four 3-pointers. Fason scored 14 points.
The two teams will be back in action in two weeks at Bruce on Jan. 7 for the beginning of Class 2A, Region 2 play.
