Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

WOLVERETTES 45

LADY 'CATS 33 Prescott's Wolverettes proved they could play a slower paced game as they dumped the Lady 'Cats 45-33 in the night's opener.

The victory did two things first, it gave Mena's girls their only league loss of the season to date, and secondly, it put Prescott in a tie for first in the conference.

These two teams will meet again in the final game of the regular season on Friday, Feb. 12.

The Lady 'Cats surprised the Wolverettes in the first period, as they jumped out to a 14-8 lead.

Prescott appeared to be a bit tight at the beginning of the contest and missed several shots.

However, period two saw the Wolverettes appear as they outscored Mena 13-4. This proved to be the turning point of the contest, as Prescott never trailed again.

Mena showed a great deal of patience in working the ball and clock. Most teams, when facing Prescott's half-court defense, take little time in firing away.

The Wolverette defense was intense, waiting and watching for Mena to make a mistake. Mistakes, though, were few and far between for both squads.

Trailing didn't set well with Prescott's girls as they went into attack mode defensively, filling the lanes to block passes and putting hands in faces to keep Mena from shooting cleanly.

Jeanie Haynie got Prescott within two as she nailed a shot with 3:33 showing in the half to cut the lead to 16-14.

The Wolverettes took the lead at the 2:53 point when Traci Graham busted a trey from outside to push the score to 17-16.

The Wolverettes were able to outscore Mena 4-2 over the rest of the half.

Period three saw more intense basketball from these two teams as neither was ready to make it easy for the other.

The Lady 'Cats wanted to remain alone atop the league standings, but the Wolverettes had no intention of letting this happen.

As the half ended, the Wolverettes emerged from the locker room still drenched in sweat from their first half exertions.

They opened the third quarter pressing Mena and managed to score first when Jessica Hendrix found the bottom of the bucket with the rock.

Still, neither team was able to get a running game going, and the thought of fast breaks weren't worth the effort as the two squads were similar in speed.

Throughout the rest of the third quarter, the game was a defensive highlight film as both teams fought to keep the other from scoring.

Graham found her stroke to keep Prescott leading, while the team's defense all but shut Mena out in the quarter.

As time ran down in the third, the Wolverette defensive pressure was showing as the Lady 'Cat players were thinking before taking a shot.

Other than Prescott being called for a series of fouls late in the frame, the officials let both teams play a solid, physical contest.

The gloves came off for real in the final eight minutes as the Wolverettes knew the game was theirs for the taking.

The Lady 'Cats showed they could pass the ball around Prescott's press, but were unable to compensate for the Wolverette's speed on defense as the gaps quickly filled and cut off any easy baskets.

The Prescott defense operated like a Swiss watch, while the game turned into a world class chess match for the coaches. Both worked their strategies, trying to see what was and wasn't effective.

With 3:36 left in regulation, Prescott led 35-26. Stacy Stockton went into her linebacker mind set and took control of the baseline.

This meant the Lady 'Cats had to collapse inside to stop Stockton and leave others open from the outside, or let Stockton go one-on-one and guard the rest of the court.

They chose the latter, and were burned.

With a minute showing Mena had three fouls to give and worked to foul quickly. However, the Lady 'Cats were trailing 41-33 at the time.

The clock was definitely on Prescott's side, which meant Mena had to shoot quickly. This resulted in missed shots and Wolverette rebounds, along with a 45-33 final score.

Graham was Prescott's leading scorer as she stroked in 18. Stockton followed with 13.

Montgomery was Mena's lone player in double figures, but she was the game's high scorer with 19.

Free throws played little part in the outcome as Prescott was three of five and Mena converted four of eight.