John Marshall Gets Past Cambridge
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MOUNDSVILLE -- Coming off a rough outing last Friday night against Morgantown, the John Marshall girls' basketball team wasted little time flexing a little muscle and getting off on the right foot against visiting Cambridge Monday night.
The Monarchs forced 14 first quarter turnovers, which helped lead to an 18-0 burst and pave the way for the team's fourth victory in nine outings.
Junior Madge Lucey scored a team-high 15 points while a trio of her teammates evenly divided 24 as John Marshall raced to a 22-3 lead after a quarter and then held off a young, but feisty, Bobcats squad by a 57-44 margin at the John Marshall Fieldhouse.
Coach Brock Melko watched his Monarchs score just three fewer points in the first quarter than they did three days earlier against the Mohigans, which equaling their field goal total of eight in just the first eight minutes Monday.
"That was a tough matchup for us last Friday against Morgantown and fortunately we didn't have to wait long to get back on the court for this one," Melko said. "Hopefully now we can get a couple in a row and start building some confidence."
Leading 4-3 early on, Lucey got the 18-0 run going with a pair of field goals, a triple and another off a steal. Before all was said and done in the opening stanza the Monarchs had a 22-3 lead and had forced 14 turnovers.
The hosts pushed the lead to 33-9 with 2:14 remaining in the first half, their biggest advantage of the game, before Cambridge (1-9) simply quit turning the ball over and chipped its way back into the game.
Coach Dan Linscott's squad ended the half on a 7-2 rally that cut the deficit to 35-16 at the break.
Extending into the third quarter that run grew to 17-4 as the Bobcats clawed their way back to within 37-26 at 5:14 of the third. With just 28 ticks showing in the quarter an Alexis Wilkinson 3-point bomb got the visitors to as close as they managed to get at 42-35. Sophomore Landyn Helms answered with a triple just before the horn to make it 45-35 with eight minutes to play.
A quick Taylor Slaughter hoop cut it back to eight before Cambridge went cold, not scoring a point for over five minutes, while the Monarchs put things away with a 7-0 run to extend the margin back to 15.
"I thought both teams did a good job at times (Monday)," Melko said. "But we have been working on forcing the issue on defense in practice and making it so the other team is not so comfortable with the ball. That was something I thought we did well other than probably the second quarter and into the third.
"I knew they wouldn't quit, and we told the girls that they were a young, hungry and well-coached team that was going to keep coming. Unfortunately, we left our foot off the gas a little and made some weak passes.
"It also helps when the ball goes in the basket (referring to his team's 19 percent showing last Friday)."
Anna Blake, Abby Blake and Lakyn Groves helped back Lucey with eight points each while Helms chipped in with seven. John Marshall grabbed a 31-27 edge off the glass but turned the ball over 28 times to 24 for their guests. The Bobcats had just four second half miscues after totaling 20 at the break.
"With one senior, one junior, three sophomores and four freshmen we are a bunch of young kids still learning the game," Linscott said. "But we challenged the kids (Monday) and I think they became mental giants after playing like mental midgets in the past.
"I think we really may have found something (Monday). I am very proud of the effort and the way the girls battled the whole way. I think after we got the lead down to seven or eight, we simply got a little fatigued after playing so hard in the second and third quarters.
"But our senior and junior provided good leadership, and everyone contributed. It was a nice team effort."
Slaughter finished with a game-high 16 points for Cambridge while McKinzi Linscott added nine and Wilkinson seven in a losing effort.