Burch’s Cheyenne Moore goes in for a layup in last night’s game. Photo/Michael Browning
Williamson got off to a good start, opening up with a 10-2 lead. But, Burch rallied behind eight straight points from Haley Church and a layin from Cheyenne Moore to take a 12-10 lead into the second quarter.
Burch pushed its lead to 17-10 with a shot from Stephanie Brock, a bucket from Kayla Cisco and a free throw from Haley Church, but Williamson’s Jessica Fields and Shareeka Jones each scored a basket to cut the Lady Wolves deficit to 17-14 with 5:04 left in the first half.
The Lady Bulldogs got a tossin from Haley Church and a layin from Moore to take a 21-15 lead with 2:26 left in the second quarter, before Williamson’s Jones hit a 3-pointer and a foul shot to make it 21-19 with 1:10 left in the half.
The Lady Wolves then took the lead on a running tossin by Fields, who was fouled, and she made her free throw to give Williamson a 22-21 lead at the intermission.
Hilary Church scored to start the second half and to reclaim the lead, 23-22, for the Lady Bulldogs. Her sister, Haley, then hit a baseline shot to make it 25-22 with 6:05 left in the third frame.
Williamson cut it to 25-24, but Haley Church scored a field goal and Cisco put in a shot from under the basket to make it 29-24. The Lady Bulldogs led 37-30 at the end of the third stanza.
From there, the Lady Wolves would get only as close as three to the Burch lead as the hosts held on for the win.
“I have to tip my hat to Williamson, Coach Robin Porter does a good job with them. They put pressure on us and Shareeka Jones and Jessica Fields are tough defensively,” Burch Coach Melvin Cunningham said. “We got in foul trouble early and that’s something we have to work on. I thought our freshmen, Cayla Hatfield, Brittany Maynard, Brittany Stumbo and Bri Smith, all came in and did a good job. This is what makes you better, so we’ll take it.”
Haley Church led all scorers with 21 points. Brock scored seven for Burch, while Cisco, Moore and Hilary Church each netted five. Brittany Stumbo and Kim Smith each scored two.
Williamson was led by Fields’ 15 points, while Mackenzie Stapleton added 10, Devan Maynard poured in eight, Jones scored five and Olivia Banks added three.
“I think this is a good start to putting Williamson and Burch back playing basketball again,” Coach Porter said. “I told the girls that one of the reasons they quit playing a long time ago was that Williamson wasn’t competitive. I told them what we wanted to do was come over and make a statement that this is why they need to keep us on their schedule. We’ve had some trouble playing four quarters, but, I thought we played four quarters tonight. I played six girls and I played up and down the floor. My seniors stepped up and showed some real leadership there. They played really hard. I couldn’t ask for anything more, except that we’d hit a few more foul shots.”
Williamson made 13-of-26 free throws.
“Haley Church was all over the place and we really had trouble stopping her off the screens,” Porter said.
The Lady Wolves fell to 1-2 with the loss. They will play next in the Gilbert Holiday Tournament on Dec. 29-30.
Burch improves to 3-1 with the victory and will play, weather permitting, tomorrow night at Tug Valley. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. at the Tug Valley High School gym.
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