West Holmes (9-5, 6-1) had three players in double figures led by Aveona Yoder’s season high 19 points in the final game of the Classic in the Country, beating Strasburg-Franklin (10-3, 8-0) by a score of 53-52 on Jan. 15.
The Knights led the game in every quarter, starting the game with a 13-11 advantage and 23-17 at halftime. West Holmes came out in the second half using the momentum to win the third quarter 15-12. They finished out strong, outscoring the Tigers 15-3 to walk away with a 21 point win over a major non-conference test.
“I thought everyone filled their roles tonight and that led us to playing a complete game,” said Coach Lindsy Belden.
Yoder’s 19 points on perfect 9-for-9 shooting led the way, and she added three assists, a board and a steal. The team also got quality contributions across the board from Briar Cline, Keegan Uhl and Allie McMillen.
Cline had 14 points with three makes from deep, and three rebounds and an assist. Uhl put up 12 points on four first half threes, four steals, three rebounds and two assists.
“Aveona had a really good night scoring against players who were bigger than her,” said Belden. “She has been pretty consistent lately and I am hoping that continues to give her confidence. Briar is in a similar situation, where she has made some shots and is playing with more confidence than she has in the past. We also asked Briar to defend a big, which she handled very well. I am proud of Keegan for making shots tonight and defending for us.”
McMillen had nine dimes in the contest, while also grabbing five rebounds and five steals.
“Allie played really well defensively and distributed the ball for us,” Coach Belden said.
Zalina Proper scored six points, grabbed three boards and tallied an assist and two steals. Nealie Fair had two points, an assist and four boards. Chloe Patten took down four boards and an assist West Holmes, as well.
West Holmes shot 37.7% from the field, 26.9% from three and went 6-for-9 from the charity stripe. Strasburg-Franklin had 24 turnovers and the Knights capitalized with 16 points off them. West Holmes also only turned the ball over 12 times in the game. The Knights led 28-25 in boards, 19-9 in assists and 12-9 in steals.
Next up for West Holmes was an important OCC road matchup with Ashland (6-8, 4-4) on Jan. 18. The Arrows have been streaky this season but have won back-to-back games. On Dec. 9 they beat Ashland 54-40 and they were looking to repeat this success.
West Holmes went up big in the Ashland matchup, and while the Arrows clawed back with a big third quarter, the Knights held on for a 63-57 win to pick up a conference victory.
Cline started off the game with a big three from the top of the key to go up 3-0. It wad a 5-4 lead for West Holmes when Uhl also hit a shot from deep to go up by four. McMillen immediately followed with a three from the corner, actually nearly the same exact spot, to make it an 11-4 lead. Ashland was able to tack on a bucket to cut the lead to five, and Kennedy Lacy stopped a West Holmes scoring chance with a steal under the basket. However, West Holmes extended their lead out to 14-8. From there the Knights went on a huge 12-2 run highlighted by a steal and fast break layup by McMillen.
In the second quarter the Knights were up 31-16 when Chloe Patten drained a three to make it a 34-16 lead. They extended the lead to 38-21 on a fast break play by McMillen. At halftime it was a commanding 39-23 lead for West Holmes.
The Arrows are a sleeper team, however, and they caught West Holmes by surprise with a 16-5 advantage in the third quarter to cut the lead to 44-39. West Holmes finished out the game strong, 19-18, to secure the win.
Uhl led the charge scoring with 15 points. McMillen had a strong all-around game with 12 points, nine boards, five assists and four steals. Cline also hit double figures with 11 points, and had four assists and six steals.
Proper put up nine points, six boards, four steals and four assists. Yoder tallied nine points and three assists.
West Holmes led 31-28 in boards, 19-17 in assists, and 14-10 in steals. Ashland shot better at 46-% to 43%, but West Holmes did a good job hitting threes at 39% compared to 29%.
