×
X logo

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox.

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

You may opt-out anytime by clicking "unsubscribe" from the newsletter or from your account.

Shorthanded Knights Rally to Victory

Reinbeau nets 32, Horan adds 19 for Central

Photo by Cody Tomer Wheeling Central’s Serena Gieyer, left, looks to get by Linsly defender Molly Heron during a highly contested game on Wednesday at the Stifel Field House.

WHEELING — Despite missing two all-state guards, the heart of the Wheeling Central girls’ basketball team remained.

After falling behind by nine points late in the third quarter without Hannah White and Eden Gainer, the Maroon Knights rallied to stun Linsly, 68-59, on Wednesday night at the Stifel Field House.

Kaylee Reinbeau led the comeback with 13 points in the final quarter and finished with 32, while Marissa Horan tallied nine in the final eight minutes and supplied 19 overall.

“Missing two all-staters in Hannah and Eden but Kaylee Reinbeau stepped up like the player she is and everybody else played their roles to a tee,” Central coach Penn Kurtz said.

“We also put something in for Marissa this game. She is great at driving to the basket, so we put it in for her to dribble penetrate and get to the basket. Once she got her confidence going, she topped it off with a couple 3s.

“She was dead tired but she wasn’t going to give up and she never came out of the game. It was a heck of an effort from her part.”

With an injured White already sidelined, Gainer joined her teammate with a shoulder issue.

“It’s the same shoulder injury as last year where Eden missed half the season,” Kurtz said. “It popped out Saturday against Bellaire. She says that she is day-to-day but I don’t know when she will be back and Hannah just had her surgery (Wednesday).”

With the two sharp-shooters out of the lineup for Wheeling Central (7-7), Linsly (5-10) took advantage and held its biggest lead at 51-42 with less than a minute to go in the third, and led 51-44 heading to the fourth.

Standout guards Charlie Allison and Josie Purpura were unstoppable for three quarters, netting 20 and 17, respectively, but the Knights defense stepped up in the fourth and held the duo to a combined seven points down the stretch.

“We finally got on their two players who were making shots,” Kurtz said. “They hit a couple but we forced them to work hard for shots. It was a new defense we played, so we were trying to figure it out as we went along.”

Allison turned in 25 points and 10 rebounds to complete a double-double and Purpura delivered 19 points, while Brinley Steen also reached double figures with 10, but it was the missed shots that haunted the Cadets.

“We shot 10-for-46 from two-point land,” Linsly coach Rebecca Upton said. “I think we got good shots but we just didn’t finish them. Forty-six shots is a lot of shots. If we make a reasonable amount of those and just finish at the rim, it could be a different story.”

The Knights outscored the Cadets, 24-8, in the fourth, which included a 14-1 run to kick off the quarter and turn a seven-point deficit into a six-point cushion. After that, Linsly was unable to get back-to-back buckets the rest of the way.

“Central got tough down the stretch and we did not,” Upton said. “Our toughness was not there and that is disappointing, but it is in us. I know it’s there but we just have to find a way every night to get that out of them.”

The Cadets looked strong early, starting the game with a 10-4 run before Central creeped back into it. An Allison steal and layup at the buzzer gave Linsly a 17-15 edge after one.

Both teams enjoyed 6-0 runs in the second quarter to keep the score close with the hosts leading 33-28 at the half.

The margin grew wider in the third behind an 8-2 Linsly run sparked by an Allison 3, but the Central 14-1 spurt to start the fourth was bookended by 3s from Reinbeau and Horan and the rest was history.

“This was a great effort from our girls,” Kurtz said. “They were dead tired but kept digging deep to find something extra and find a way to win the game.

“They practiced really hard, too. They knew that they weren’t going to have Eden and they picked it up. I am so proud of them. Whether we won or lost, I was still going to be proud of them.”

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $4.73/week.

Subscribe Today