Shawnee’s Alexis Whetstone shoots against Elida during Thursday’s game at Lappin Gymnasium.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP — Shawnee’s 60-46 girls basketball win over Elida in the Western Buckeye League opener for both teams on Thursday night was a classic case of the final score being closer than the game actually was.
Shawnee ran out to a 20-5 lead in the first 5 1/2 minutes of the game, shot 70 percent in the first quarter, took control of the game and never let Elida back into it.
Elida cut the lead to eight points twice in the second quarter, but that was as close as it could get.
“We’ve been in a bit of a (shooting) slump lately, so that was good for us,” Shawnee coach Rachel Rumbaugh said.
Shawnee shot 52 percent in the first half, 55 percent in the second half and 54 percent for the game.
Grace Freiberger led Shawnee with 26 points and six rebounds, and Alexis Whetstone had 15 points and 4 rebounds.
“We had a lot of up-tempo defense tonight which is something that we’ve really been trying to work on. We also had balance – we had balanced rebounding and balanced scoring. That’s what we talk about a lot is everybody contributing, and we really did that tonight,” Rumbaugh said.
That up-tempo defense produced 19 Elida turnovers — 12 of them in the first half while Shawnee built a 36-22 lead after two quarters.
Whetstone’s 15 points were a personal season high.
“She played incredible for us tonight. She’s always been a good shooter. Sometimes we’ve been begging her to shoot. She did a great job tonight,” Rumbaugh said.
“We have to work on our halfcourt offense, we have to work on our press but we’re moving in the right direction, which is the good thing,” she said.
Elida came into the game with a small roster, and the number of players it had available became even smaller early in the game.
“We were missing senior Jojo Knight tonight, and then my senior Alexis Ward went down hurt in the first quarter,” Elida coach Elise Jenkins said.
“I knew it was going to be tough against a solid Shawnee team. They were shooting really well. We got in some foul trouble and that gap, that lead happened really fast,” she said. “We’re not a halfcourt offense team, we’re get the ball and go. They defended our big girl (Emma Mitchell) well. There were some sparks of things that I liked. The shooting just wasn’t there for us.”
Lilly Sifrit led the Bulldogs with 15 points.
Shawnee 60, Elida 46
Elida 11 11 7 17 – 46
Shawnee 21 15 11 13 – 60
Elida
Jordan Gladden 9, Lilly Sifrit 15, Emma Mitchell 6, Leah Ramirez 2, Oliveah Sanders 12, Shaelynn Rager 2. Totals: 18-5-46.
Shawnee
Grace Freiberger 26, Lauren Potts 2, Brynn Patterson 4, Kamryn Morris 3, Morgan Betts 4, Sydney Burris 3, Alexis Whetstone 15, Heaven Watkins 3. Totals: 23-10-60.
3-pointers made: Elida — Sanders 4, Sifrit 1; Shawnee — Freiberger 3, , Whetstone 1.
Records: Shawnee 2-2, 1-0 WBL; Elida 0-4, 0-1 WBL
