Nov. 27—If the first half was some of the worst basketball the Washington Lady Hatchets can play, then the third quarter showed just how good one of Southwest Indiana’s best teams can be at the Hatchet House on Tuesday.
After a horrendous first half that ended with the Lady Hatchets trailing 16-15, Class 3A No. 3 Washington dominated the third quarter enroute to a 45-24 win over Vincennes Lincoln.
Marla Thorne opened the second half with a basket for Vincennes Lincoln (4-3), giving the Lady Alices their biggest lead of the game at 18-15. But that bucket would be the beginning of the end for Vincennes.
Shay Hawk hit a 3-pointer on the next possession for Washington (6-2), igniting a 21-0 Lady Hatchet run over the next 3:30. Overall, WHS outscored Vincennes 26-6 in the third quarter, forcing 10 Vincennes turnovers and limiting the Lady Alices to 2-6 shooting.
Meanwhile, Washington shot 10-16 from the field in the third stanza — including 6-7 from behind the arc after hitting just one trey in the first half. And after committing eight first half turnovers, coach Gretchen Miles’ team didn’t record a miscue in the third quarter.
“Credit to Vincennes, they packed in that 2-3 zone, it gave us fits that first half. The best thing for us was halftime, just getting out of that first half and being fortunate to be down just one,” said Miles, whose team shot 5-22 from the field in the first half. “Credit to the kids to pick up that tempo in the third quarter, to speed things up and being able to use our depth to run kids in and out and be able to keep up that pressure. And just being able to see a shot go in from the perimeter.
“That was the talk at halftime ‘The shot will go in the basket; you just have to have confidence in that. And when it does, that rim is going to look like the Atlantic Ocean.'” said Miles. “The ball going in the bucket made a big difference for us, and that opened up things in the paint too.”
Washington came out in the second and pressed full court, pressure which Vincennes had no answer for and that helped kickstart the Lady Hatchet offense.
“It doesn’t matter what you say or don’t say at halftime, they’re going to come out here and do what they do,” said Miles. “Credit to (assistant) coach (Kelly) Garland too, it was his idea to go man to man, full court press to speed up the tempo and get our kids just out of the funk. And also, to see if we could wear down Vincennes a little bit in the second half and make it a full court game.”
Katie Reed led WHS with 12 points, including a pair of threes in the third quarter. Reed was one of four Lady Hatchets to dial long distance in the third quarter, with Kenna Garland knocking down a pair of threes on the way to scoring all 10 of her points in the quarter. London Gilley also hit a trey in the third quarter and finished with eight points overall. Aubrey Franked added nine points and dished out seven assists, while Hawk finished with three points, Ella Williams added two points, and Olivia Gilley added one point. Kyra Schuckman didn’t score but provided solid play off the bench.
Grace Archer topped Vincennes with 12 points.
Washington also claimed the JV game 51-27. Maddy Johnson led WHS with 12 points, followed by 10 from Danica Dowling and eight from Maddie Withiem. Ella Knepp added seven points, followed by five points each from Breah Eskew and Sammi Clarke. Campbell Cornelius added four points.
The Lady Hatchets return to action on Tuesday with a trip Evansville Memorial.
