Warriors pull together with late run

January 24, 2007|by TIM KOELBLE

BOONSBORO - Coming off a big win over North Hagerstown last Saturday, Boonsboro's girls basketball team looked nothing like a unit that shares first place in its conference on Tuesday night.

The No. 5 Warriors looked disheveled - in part because of a fiesty Smithsburg squad - before pulling out a 59-40 victory to keep a hold of their piece of the lead in the MVAL Antietam Conference.

Smithsburg's Emily Hargreaves hit a 3-pointer to begin the fourth period, cutting the Warriors' lead to 39-32 before Boonsboro rattled off 16 straight points to put the game away.

"Except for the North game, we've really not played together all season," said Boonsboro coach Max Shaffer. "We didn't play well tonight and it showed. We didn't have any flow in our offense except for the few minutes in the fourth quarter."

And, the Warriors (8-3, 5-1) did it without much punch from its one-two scoring tandem of Jerica Hewett and Alex Baker.

Baker converted four free throws to start the run, but two field goals by Whitney Shepherd and one each from Amy Rhoderick and Jamie Bingaman propelled the Warriors to a 51-32 lead. Bingaman finished with 10 points and Rhoderick had nine.

Baker led the Warriors with 14 points, but made just two shots from the field - a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter. She hit 8 of 10 at the line.

Hewett, saddled with four personal fouls, had only nine first-half points.

Smithsburg (3-11, 2-5) hit 6 of 12 shots from the field in the first quarter and trailed by only four, 18-14. But the Leopards went to the other extreme in the second, missing all 15 of their shots and scoring but six points from the line.

Smithsburg committed 30 turnovers in the game, five in Boonsboro's decisive fourth-quarter run.

"We knew we couldn't stop Hewett and Baker, we just wanted to contain them," said Smithsburg coach Eddie Hargreaves. "We're undersized every game and you expect some mistakes. The game boiled down to our turnovers and they converted on them. But I thought we played tough."

Cara Jordan led Smithsburg with 17 points.

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