Lake County Sentinel
Skippers second half rally lead to 58-48 win over Blue Devils
BY TIM SHIRER
SPORTS EDITOR
On Wednesday night the Fairport Harding Skipper hosted the Wickliffe Blue Devils in Girls Basketball. Neither team had won a game yet in the young season. The Blue Devils entered the game with a couple starters injured and the young Skippers took advantage with a late surge taking down the Blue Devils 58-48 to earn their first win of the season and send the Wickliffe to 0-3.
Wickliffe Sophomore Georgia Zele got the scoring started 24 seconds into the game when she hit a three point shot. Skippers Sophomore Andrea Garcia countered with a layup 20 seconds later to close the gap to 3-2 at the 7:16 mark. Wickliffe then got another three pointer this time from Freshman Jada Davis, Fairport came right back with a layup from Sophomore Olivia Eldridge, she was just getting started on a big night and it pulled the Skippers to within two points at 6-4 with 6:42 left on the first quarter clock. The Blue Devils then went on an 11-3 run capped off by two free throws by Senior Hannah Levon making the score 17-7 with :55.6 left in the first quarter. Levon had six points during the run the start to a big night. As the quarter ended the Blue Devils had a 17-9 lead and looked in control of the game. Looks can be deceiving as the Skippers proved.
The second quarter Eldridge really heated up scoring 10 of the Skipper’s 12 points as they outscored the Blue Devils 12-11. Wickliffe had six different players score in the quarter no one with more than two points. The Blue Devils held on to a 28-21 lead when halftime commenced.
Wickliffe barely out shot the Skippers 35% (11 for 31) to 28% (8 for 28) in poor shooting first half for both teams. Wickliffe won the battle of the boards in the first half 12 to 4. The Skippers turned the ball over 14 times compared to the Blue Devils nine.
The second half belonged to the Skippers. In the third period Eldridge continued her big night as she scored 10 more points to lead all scorers in the third. Levon led the Blue Devils scoring effort with five points as the Devils combined for only 12 points total in the quarter meanwhile the Skippers put up 19 to tie the game at the end of three quarters 40-40.
The game went back and forth for the first 3:11 of the fourth quarter until the Skipper took the lead 47-45 with 4:18 left on the game clock and Freshman Kara McFadden hit a jumper. The Skippers never trailed again as they outscored the Blue Devils 11-3 in the final four minutes to earn the hard fought win.
Eldridge led all scorers in the game with 26 points. Maria Sterringer also contributed to the Skipper’s effort with 12 points and McFadden finished with 10. Levon led the Blue Devils with 21. Zele also had 11 points with Freshman Jada Davis contributing eight in the loss.
It was not exactly a clean shooting night as the Skippers shot 22 for 63 for 35% and Wickliffe shot 18 for 63 for 28%. The two teams also had trouble holding onto the ball as the Skippers turned it over 25 times and the Blue Devils were a little better at 22.
The Skippers will be in action next on Monday at home when they play Mentor Christian at 5:30 p.m. The Blue Devils will try to get in the win column also on Monday when they travel to Trinity to take on the Trojans at 7:00 p.m.
tshirer@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Tim on Twitter @IndiansTim Check out our High School Scoreboard
POSTED 12/04/2019 23:13
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