Sports - February 2003

West boys, girls lose in season finale

TERRANCE THOMAS, LTN Staff writer

February 17, 2003 - VALE — The Shelby boys and girls basketball teams both played swarming defense to defeat both West Lincoln teams Friday night.

The Lady Golden Lions roared early and cruised the rest of the way to a 55-31 win.

Shelby boys used a 15-4 run the first quarter to zip by the Rebels 64-40.

In the girls game, Shelby outscored West in each of the four quarters.

But most damage was done in the first quarter, where Shelby outscored the Lady Rebels 18-4.

West coach Allen Hoyle said Shelby just dominated right away and never looked back.

Shelby went up 28-11 at the end of half and extended its lead to 39-18 going into the final period.

Only in the fourth quarter was West really able to do much on offense.

Center Lilly Tallent scored several baskets to finish with a team-high 10 points. Karla Sigman added five while Valerie Fite and Holly Wellman both chipped in with four each.

The Lady Rebels will play Midwest Conference champions Bunker Hill in the first round of the conference tournament Tuesday. West girls must win the tournament to reach the playoffs. Lose and their season is over.

The same goes for the West boys, who will play at Newton-Conover, the second-place team, Tuesday.

West took Newton to overtime in their last meeting before falling at the end.

The last time the Rebels played Shelby, they took the Lions to the wire.

But Friday night it was a different story.

Shelby came in with a mission. Winning the game Friday meant the Lions were all-out conference champs.

The Lions came out with an in-your-face full-court pressure defense from the start.

After West got early baskets from Jonathan Phelps and Zach Franklin, the Lions picked up the pace and outscored West 15-2 the rest of the quarter.

West couldn’t do much. Point guard Juan Troya had an unusual bad night. His passes were off the mark or were knocked away.

West played better in the second half, thanks to the play of post players Phelps and Ty Curtis who combined for nine of the team’s 13 points in the second quarter.

Technically, West was still in the game at the half, 31-19.

However, Shelby broke it open in the third by pushing its swarming defense to another level to outscore the Rebels 19-4 in the third quarter and put the game away.

The Lions were all over the place. At times, they had four players around the ball. They got steals which became fast breaks which became easy baskets.

Meanwhile, West added on to the fire by making many unforced turnovers.

In the fourth quarter Phelps scored nine points to finish with a team-high 17. Curtis had nine.

West Senior Night

West girls basketball:

Stephanie Sain

West boys basketball:

Nic Baxter

Ben Bryant

Jeremy Detter

Zach Franklin

Sege Hood

Jonathan Phelps

Juan Troya

Cheerleaders:

Lauren Mosteller

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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