UNIONTOWN—Some might say it was a tale of two halves, but really it was a tale of a close game for three quarters of the night. That one bad period put the game out of reach for Marmaton Valley High’s Wildcats and Uniontown High’s Eagles took advantage, beating their Highway 54 rivals 60-40 Friday night at home.
Both teams’ came out firing on offenses and hit some shots, but the opening period went the Eagles way as they outscored the Wildcats 11-8.
In the second, the Eagles and Wildcats picked up where they left off, each scoring double digits in the period. But again, the tilt went Uniontown’s way. The squads headed in for the halftime break with the Eagles up 25-20.
“In the first half we played right along with them,” said Kent Houk, head coach of the now 1-14 Wildcats.
Then came the struggles for Marmaton Valley. Coming out of the break with a stagnate offense which wasn’t helped by a tough Uniontown defense, the Wildcats didn’t hit their first basket until about five minutes into the third period. Meanwhile, the Eagles were draining most of their shots.
“We came out and had a slow third quarter,” Houk said. “We came out cold, and they came out hot.”
And with Marmaton Valley only making one more field goal in the period, the Eagles took a 41-24 lead into the final period. The WIldcats would never recover.
“That was the difference,” Houk said.
Eagles’ head coach Ken Holt said his girls played like a different teams from one half to the next.
“I thought we played very poorly on the defensive end in the first half, but they turned that around in the third quarter and played the kind of defense that they’re capable of.”
Uniontown’s DaNisha Robinson led all players with 16 points and teammates Hope Jurgensen and Hayden Rathbun had 14 and 12 points respectively.
Standouts for the Wildcats were Kailey Boyd with 11 points and Kacie Shadden and Tabitha Ford had 10 apiece.
Uniontown (11-14-16-19—60) (FG/3-pt): Shinn 4-0-1-8, Rathbun 6-0-1-12, Coyan 0-0-1-0, Shook 3/1-1-4-10, Jurgensen 7-0-3-14, Robinson 8-0-1-16, Dawson 0-0-1-0, Ridge 0-0-1-0, Rockhold 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 28/1-1-11-60.
Marmaton Valley (8-12-4-16—40) : Ensminger 0/1-0-1-3, Cavendar 2-0-0-4, Boyd 3/1-2-0-11, Shadden 2/1-3-1-10, Meiwes 1-0-5-2, Ford 5-0-3-10, Hamlin 0-0-4-0. TOTALS: 13/2-5-14-40.
Eagle girls beat Wildcats
