Chapmanville’s Chelcie Pritchard and Hailey Price double team the Wayne point guard.

slideshow

CHAPMANVILLE — With a difficult three-game conference schedule ahead the Chapmanville Regional High School girls’ basketball team needed to make quick work of struggling Wayne on Thursday night at the CRHS gym.

The Lady Tigers did just that as Chapmanville hammered the Pioneers 61-32 in Cardinal Conference action.

Chapmanville bounced back from a 46-43 loss on Dec. 27 to Keyser in the Capital City Classic at the Charleston Catholic Athletic Complex and improved to 5-3 overall and 4-2 in the conference.

Wayne, which was swept this season by the Lady Tigers, losing 58-38 earlier in the basketball campaign at home, dropped to 1-9, 0-6.

The Pioneers jumped on top of Chapmanville 5-0 early in Thursday night’s game before the Lady Tigers started pressing. Wayne couldn’t handle Chapmanville’s defensive pressure and turned over the ball a ton of times.

Chapmanville went on a 19-2 run to take a commanding 19-7 lead after one quarter of play. It was all Lady Tigers after that as CRHS led 37-18 at the half and 51-24 after three. Chapmanville led by as many as 30 points in the second half.

All of the Lady Tigers’ players got into the game and nine got into the scorebooks, led by Katelynn Hall who poured in a game-high 22 points and hauled down nine rebounds. Kristin DesRocher also reached double digits with 17 points.

For Chapmanville, it was a good way to start the 2013 portion of the 2012-13 season.

“We put in a couple of different looks over Christmas break with our 2-2-1 and our full-court man along with our diamond,” Chapmanville coach David Williamson said. “We mixed it up and did a little bit of everything tonight.”

Hall scored 12 of Chapmanville’s first-quarter points and helped turn the tide early on the Pioneers.

“Katelynn Hall was on fire,” Williamson said. “I think she had 20 points in the first half, then they started lagging in on her. We’re not a very good outside shooting team. Over the break we put the stats on the board and showed it. We had probably three or four shots outside of the paint tops. But we attacked the bucket and got to the foul line.”

Jessica Rideout tallied six points for Chapmanville on a pair of 3-pointers. Autumn Baisden had four, while Katelynn Manns had three points. Savannah Wiley, Kortni Packo and Hannah Vance all had a bucket. Hillary Hainer chipped in with one point.

Tasha Maynard led Wayne with 14 points. Emily Marsh had eight, Paige Justice and Ally Gue had four each and Kaitlyn Arnold had two points.

Coach Williamson said his team has developed depth and that’s something the Lady Tigers will need heading into the final two months of the long season.

“Over the break we had a heart-to-heart discussion. I was telling them that if it’s not your night we have to go down the depth chart,” Williamson said. “We can go deeper and this is just going to help us. We can play 10 or 11 people.”

Wayne stunned Chapmanville with an early 5-0 lead after a 3-pointer by Maynard and a 19-footer by Marsh.

The Lady Tigers then tied it 5-5 with a Rideout triple.

Chapmanville went ahead for good, 7-5, on a pair of Hall free throws with 4:44 to go.

Hall then added a 17-footer and an inside bucket, capping off Chapmanville’s 11-0 run as the Lady Tigers led 11-5.

A hoop by DesRocher later made it a 15-0 run as CRHS led 15-5.

Leading 19-7 after one, the Lady Tigers kept growing the lead in the second quarter.

It was 25-10 with Hall’s putback with 4:57 to go.

The lead swelled to 32-10 with a drive to the bucket by Hall at the 3:19 mark.

Hall later expanded the lead to 37-14 with 1:30 left after a Hall putback in the lane.

Chapmanville led 37-18 at the half and went on an 11-0 run to take a 48-18 lead at the 4:09 mark of the third quarter. DesRocher completed the scoring spree with a layup. She also canned a 19-foot jumper and a 10-foot baseline shot during the run. Rideout netted a 3-pointer and Baisden also had a lay-in.

The Lady Tigers then coasted to a 51-24 lead after three and outscored Wayne 10-8 in the fourth as Coach Williamson emptied his bench.

CRHS was scheduled to return to action with Saturday night’s Cardinal Conference game at Tolsia. The Lady Tigers then host Scott next Thursday night and travel to Sissonville next Saturday night. Both Tolsia and Scott are also in Chapmanville’s Class AA section and sectional rankings will be on the line.

“We’re eight games into it and we’re 5-3,” Williamson said. “The Tolsia and Scott games are big. We’re playing the top of the Cardinal Conference here. We’re in for a rough stretch. Scott is our Corridor G rival. In three years, we’re 1-6 against Sissonville and that was the game two years ago that we beat them in the regional tournament to make it to state. That’s a tough place to play and they have great crowds.”

Chapmanville annihilated Wayne 81-13 in Thursday night’s JV game. Wiley led the Lady Tigers with a 20-point effort. Autumn Blankenship tossed in 15 and NeNe Osborne 11.