WMVO Good Times Great Oldies
The Centerburg Lady Trojans finished 20-5 last season in girls basketball and fell to Newark Catholic in a District Finals. Missing their best player for the past couple of seasons the Trojans knew they needed a number of girls to step up to have a run at the KMAC title and it started off good Tuesday night with a 56-39 win over Northmor to improve to 2-0 and 1-0 KMAC.
Northmor got out to a hot start on back to back threes from Shelby Cooper. Centerburg’s Lauren Ellis (signed with West Liberty) got a steal and lay in for Centerburg to get on the board almost three minutes into the game. After Madi See got a bucket and Shelby Cooper scored again it was 10-2 Northmor at the 442 mark of the first quarter. Freshman Stella Sands entered the game and got a score for Centerburg. Northmor’s See hit a pair of free throws but Centerburg got a score from another freshman in Ashleigh Willyerd and Tiara Sheppard got her first points and Northmor led 12-8 after one.
Kenlee Fairall hit a three to open the second quarter for Centerburg to get within a point but Ryan Brinkman got a bucket to up the Golden Knights lead. Ellis hit 1/2 free throws before Riley Cooper hit a triple Northmor to go up 17-12 at the 535 mark. After the pair of missed free throws by the Golden Knights the Trojans got a steal and lay in by Ellis followed by a Sheppard score. Brinkman hit a free throw before Fairall tied the game up at 18 with 138 to go in the half. Riley Cooper hit a free throw before back to back triples for Centerburg from Ellis and Sheppard. Brinkman hit a pair of free throws before Sheppard bucket made it 26-21 Centerburg at half.
Twelve seconds into the third quarter Sheppard got an and one to increase Centerburg’s lead to 29-21. Brinkman scored and Bella Smith got her first points for Northmore to get within 4 but Ellis drilled a three to give Centerburg a 32-25 lead with 208 to go in the quarter. Shelby Cooper made a pair of free throws and Sheppard hit a pair of free throws to offset each other. After Northmor missed two free throws Sheppard got another and one to go up 37-27. Shelby Cooper hit 1/2 from the line and Willyerd hit both her shots at the charity stripe for Centerburg before a Sheppard three. Evie Stowe hit 1/2 free throws for Centerburg to close out the quarter to go up 43-28 at the end of three.
See scored for Northmor to open the fourth quarter to get within 13 but Sheppard drilled a three and got two free throws to increase the Centerburg lead to 48-30 543 left in the game. Brinkman scored and Centerburg went 1/5 from the line to go up 49-30. Riley Cooper and Shelby nailed back to back shots but Ellis scored and Willyerd scored 5 straight for Centerburg to go up 20. Riley Cooper hit a three for Northmor to end the scoring.
Sheppard led all scorers with 26 points. Lauren Ellis had 13 points, 7 rebounds and 6 steals. Willyerd had 9 points and Stella Sands had 9 rebounds.