Playing their season-opener at Paul Post Fieldhouse, the Lady Diamonds overcome an early scoring drought to notch their first win of the season.
Senior guard Caitlyn Hall led Sallisaw with 15 points, including six in the first quarter to stake the Lady Diamonds to an 8-2 advantage. Her baseline jumper broke a scoreless deadlock at the 3:20 mark and she drove to the basket late in the quarter to give Sallisaw an 8-2 lead.
Westville didn’t hit a shot from the field until the second quarter and went on to shoot 26.6 percent for the game.
“My personal goal is to hold people to 48 points,” Sallisaw head coach Casey Eubanks said afterward. “I thought we played excellent defense. We got out there and defended the shot, but I’m not very pleased with our rebounding because we gave them too many second shots.”
The coach attributed Sallisaw‘s slow start to “first-game jitters,” but the Lady Diamonds began to pull away in the second quarter. Caitie Goff nailed a trey and had seven points in the stanza as the home team opened up an 18-8 lead by halftime.
Hall and Candace McNamee combined for five free throws in a 5-0 run that allowed Sallisaw build its lead to 28-12 by the end of the third quarter.
The Lady Diamonds led by as many as 29 in the fourth period while improving to 1-0 with the non-conference win.
Hall grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and was the lone player to reach double figures and Eubanks was pleased to see her offensive performance.
“Caitlyn had 15 points and she’s capable of doing that every night. We need production like that out of her and Sarah Snider,” said Eubanks.
The coach said the Lady Diamonds will have to overcome some of their inexperience, but found positives with the players who came off the bench.
“We have talented people, but we’re just inexperienced,” said Eubanks. “I felt very comfortable defensively with the people I put in the game. I thought Mayra (Salazar) did an outstanding job defensively and Sam Rhodes did a great job coming in. She does a such a good job on defense that I can’t not play her.”
Goff and McNamee each had nine points and four rebounds for Sallisaw, while Snider added seven points and six boards. Erin Turner scored three, Courtney Eldridge two and Salazar one.
Christina Hammer led Westville with six points and eight rebounds.
Westville 49, SHS 40 (B)
Cody Young scored 21 points and Kyle Langley added a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds as Westville held off a late Sallisaw rally to claim the win on Tuesday night.
The Black Diamonds trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half, but Tyler Sutherland led a fourth-quarter rally with 10 of his 14 points. His shot with 1:52 left pulled Sallisaw within 42-37, but Westville got an inside basket from Langley and then hit 5-of-10 free throws to seal the win.
Matt Oberste matched Sutherland with 14 points for Sallisaw and also grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. Sheldon Caughman scored five, Damon Lynch three, Matt Mitchell two and Trey Wiley two.
Sallisaw took an early 9-5 lead in the first quarter, but Young scored eight points in a 10-0 Westville run that saw the visitors seize the lead for good. Young went on to net 15 of his points before the break, including five in row to close the half and give Westville a 23-15 cushion.
