Shadyside Pulls Away From Linsly, 47-31
Hendershot scores 12 in 4th quarter
Trending
WHEELING -- Good defense leads to good offense and Shadyside's Tory Hendershot knows a thing or two about both.
Shadyside's defense forced Linsly into 21 turnovers on Monday night and Hendershot bucketed a team-high 14 points as the Tigers pulled away late for a 47-31 victory over the Cadets inside the Stiefel Fieldhouse.
In fact, 12 of Hendershot's 14 points came in the fourth quarter.
With her squad clinging to a 28-24 edge after three, Hendershot tallied 10 straight points in just over a minute to start the fourth, which sparked a 15-0 run and completely shifted the momentum to the Tigers.
"Our man defense was pretty good for us (Monday)," Shadyside coach Serge Gentile said. "We were in the right spots and got good close outs. That kind of got us in transition where Tory is at her best."
Hendershot's spurt included a conventional three-point play and a 3-pointer for good measure.
"Tory came up huge for us in the second half," Gentile said. "She is a great player and has that competitive will to do whatever it takes to win and she was able to put together a solid fourth quarter for us."
Shadyside (9-4) got out of the gates quick with a 13-5 lead after one with Gentry Brown coming off the bench to supply seven points in the frame. However, the Tigers went silent in the second.
Carleigh Grimm -- who recorded a double-double for the Cadets with 15 points and 12 rebounds -- helped bring her squad back as Linsly outscored Shadyside 10-2 with Grimm scoring seven points in the quarter to even the score at 15-15 at halftime.
"They were playing off of us and trying to take away our driving lanes," Gentile said. "They did that very well and gave us fits but it gave us some open looks and we were able to take advantage of that in the second half."
Julie Hendershot, Brooke Selmon and Baylee Wach all took advantage as they each drained a 3 to help Shadyside open the half on an 11-5 run to secure a 26-20 upperhand.
"That was huge," Gentile said. "We couldn't get one to go in. We were too impatient and looking to drive when it wasn't there. We talked about moving the ball and getting our feet set and if it is there -- shoot it."
The Cadets (5-4) did have a 37-16 advantage on the boards with Molly Heron chipping in with nine.
"I sort of got in our face in the first quarter because I didn't think we were doing a very good job (of rebounding)," Linsly coach Rebecca Upton said. "They were getting more than one attempt and it's a bad situation for you to give Shadyside more than one attempt. They shoot 40-something percent from the floor. If the first one doesn't go in, the second one is going to.
"Then, they started making the first shot, too, which was devastating.
"We turned the ball over and missed a lot of shots (in the fourth quarter) but our kids are tough and they fought hard. We are down a player this week (Brinley Steen). We just needed a couple of things to go our way and they didn't."