Lady Hornets struggle against Senators

CAMPBELLSBURG — Determination on both sides of the ball and depth favored the West Washington Lady Senators in their game Thursday night with Medora.

The Senators led 31-6 at halftime, outrebounded the Hornets 54-33, had two players put up double-doubles and had 10 of 11 players score in winning 62-26.

The Hornets, meanwhile, struggled to get anything going, scoring in single digits in three of four quarters. Besides starting out sluggish, Medora had three key starters with two fouls apiece midway through the second quarter.

“In 25 years of coaching, I wish I had explanations for nights like this,” Hornets coach Brad McCammon said. “But all I can say is we just looked a step slow on both ends of the court, just didn’t seem to be psychologically into the game. I tried to run some different sets, tried to do everything I could. Tonight, we just didn’t have that.”

The Senators climbed on top early, scoring point after point in the lane, and led 16-2 after Kelsie Nicholson’s offensive rebound and put-back at 1:21 of the first quarter. Montana Wheeler scored the Hornets’ points on a put-back.

West Washington opened the second with six straight points, forcing McCammon to call timeout with a 22-2 deficit at 6:17.

Wheeler and Mariah Campbell each made a free throw in the second quarter, and Hannah Elkins’ layup at 3:05 was Medora’s only other points in the half.

“When we get into foul trouble, we don’t go real deep in size, and that makes a difference,” McCammon said. “We just weren’t knocking down our shots. We were getting our looks, but we just weren’t hitting them consistently, and that comes with learning where to be on the court and learning to play together.”

Elkins nailed her first 3-pointer of the game just 15 seconds into the second half, and Campbell and Kelsey McCammon each scored inside. But after three quarters, Medora trailed 43-15.

In the final period, six Senators put points on the board in outscoring the Hornets 19-11. Campbell assisted McCammon in the paint at 1:11 for Medora’s final points, while Taylor Roby’s free throws at 37 seconds marked off West Washington’s scoring. Roby came off the bench and scored all seven of her points in the fourth.

With 1.5 seconds remaining in the game, a West Washington player went down hard after attempting to pull down a rebound. Several minutes passed until the referees had the teams take the floor and put the ball in possession to run out the clock.

Emergency personnel eventually arrived to assist the player.

“West Washington, give them credit, they were physical and they took it to us,” McCammon said. “These are learning experiences. I told them you’ve got to adjust to the way the game’s being called, you’ve got to adjust to the way teams are playing and we didn’t seem to be able to do that tonight.”

Elkins carried Medora with nine points, while Wheeler scored five points and had a game-high 18 rebounds.

For the Senators, Whitley Fisher led with 15 points and 14 rebounds, Nicholson scored 14 and had 15 rebound and Bethany Popp maneuvered in the post for nine points and 10 rebounds.

The teams meet again on Jan. 23 at Medora. Last week, Medora played Christian Academy twice and got beat 55-32 the first time and nearly won the second time before falling 46-41.

McCammon said his team will need to turn things around to even the series with West Washington.

“Christian Academy took it to us pretty good the first game, and we were able to make those adjustments and rebound and come back, so we’re going to see what happens” with West Washington in January, he said.

The Hornets (1-5) will travel to Cannelton today and play host to Lighthouse Christian on Saturday afternoon.

Box score

At Campbellsburg
Medora                 2    4   9  11—26
West Washington 16 15 12 19—62
Medora (1-5): Hannah Elkins 3-15 1-3 9, Mariah Campbell 1-13 6-9 8, Montana Wheeler 2-11 1-8 5, Kelsey McCammon 2-5 0-2 4, Lindsey Ball 0-5 0-0 0, Lizzy Norklun 0-0 0-0 0, Justice Dean 0-0 0-0 0, totals 8-49 8-22 26
West Washington (1-2): Molly Johnson 3-7 0-0 7, Lauren McClure 1-6 0-0 3, Kelsie Nicholson 6-12 2-4 14, Whitley Fisher 7-15 1-2 15, Bethany Popp 3-13 3-6 9, Rachel Rosenbaum 0-2 1-2 1, Kisha Parks 1-4 0-0 2, Tori Martin 0-6 2-2 2, Taylor Roby 3-5 2-2 8, Tori Packwood 0-6 0-0 0, Emily Wise 0-1 1-2 1, totals 24-77 12-20 62
3-point goals: Medora (Elkins 2), West Washington (Johnson, McClure)
Rebounds: Medora 33 (Wheeler 18, Elkins 5, Ball 5), West Washington 54 (Nicholson 15, Fisher 14, Popp 10)
Turnovers: Medora 18, West Washington 12
Fouls: Medora 14, West Washington 22

***EDITOR'S NOTE: There was an error in the box score in the print edition of this story. It should have listed Medora's Mariah Campbell as 1-13 6-9 8. It has been corrected in the above story.