The East Webster Lady Wolverines won two out of three games in their annual Christmas tournament. The Lady Wolverines opened up with an early 58-28 win over J.Z. George and then beat Pillow Academy 48-36 in the tournament semifinals. In the finals against 3A power South Pontotoc, the Lady Wolverines led most of the game before falling 44-37 in the finals.
Coach Jon Ginn thinks his Lady Wolverines are ready to head to division 2-2A play after a competitive pre-division schedule.
“We have played a tough schedule,” Ginn said. “If you look at our losses, those are some good teams. We have lost to Ingomar, Puckett and South Pontotoc. Four of our five losses have been to ranked opponents. We feel like we can defend and compete with anybody. We just have to be able to push it over the top against those good teams. I think our girls are gaining a lot of confidence and realize they can beat anybody.”
The Lady Wolverines move to 11-5 on the season. They will return to action on Friday, Jan. 4 as they host Calhoun City in a Division 2-2A contest. The following week, East will host Bruce on Tuesday, Jan. 8 and then travel to Eupora on Friday, Jan. 11.
East Webster girls 58,
J.Z. George 28
The Lady Wolverines dominated from the beginning and cruised to a 30-point win on Thursday.
East Webster jumped out to an 18-5 lead at the end of the first and led 33-11 at the half. Each team scored nine points in the third and East finished off the game with a 16-8 advantage in the fourth.
Isha Patterson, Whitney Winter and Shan Culpepper each had 10 points apiece while Mary Grace Gregg had seven points.
East Webster girls 48,
Pillow Academy 36
The Lady Wolverines outscored the Lady Mustangs in every period to take a 12-point win in the tournament semifinals.
East led 11-9 at the end of the first and 25-16 at the half. East was able to pull out to a double-digit lead in the second half, outscoring Pillow 11-10 in the third and 12-10 in the fourth.
Whitney Winter led East Webster with 17 lints while Isha Patterson had 13 points and Kadasha Bryant added seven points.
South Pontotoc girls 44,
East Webster 37
The Lady Cougars improved to 15-3 on the season as they pulled away in the fourth to take a seven-point win over the Lady Wolverines in the tournament finals.
East led 8-5 at the end of the first period and 17-15 at the half. East outscored South Pontotoc 14-10 in the third to extend its lead to 31-25 going into the fourth. South Pontotoc then outscored East Webster 19-6 in the fourth to take the win.
“We led till about a minute and a half left,” Ginn said. “They were ranked No. 3 in Class 3A and I thought we defended them really well in the first three periods. We got into some foul trouble in the fourth and once they took the lead, we ended up having to foul and they hit all their free throws. You have to give them credit for coming back after they got behind early. I think our girls gained a lot of confidence from that game. I think they realize they can play with anybody.”
Isha Patterson led East with 12 points while Whitney Winter added 11 points while Mariah Bell had nine points.
