Brooke girls fall to Park
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WHEELING -- Brooke knew what it was getting into Monday night when the Bruins traveled up on the hilltop to take on West Virginia Class AAA No. 3 Wheeling Park in a girls basketball contest.
But, there was very little coach Ryan Scherich's squad could do about it, as the Patriots turned up the pressure early and often, forcing 29 turnovers, while continually getting multiple shots off on their end of the court.
Junior sharp-shooter Shanley Woods scored a game-high 27 points, just four less than the entire Brooke team, while sophomore Bella Abernathy added 15 points and eight rebounds, as Wheeling Park raced to a 67-31 victory.
With the victory, coach Ryan Young's squad improved to 11-2 on the campaign heading into road tilts at Parkersburg South and University. Meanwhile, Brooke will look to regroup with a 2-8 mark.
After missing her first two shots of the night, Woods exploded for 11 first-quarter points, while junior Kieran Johnson added seven rebounds over the first eight minutes. The Patriots started with a 9-0 blast before ending the frame with a 17-5 lead.
Brooke 6-foot-3 senior center Hope Bowman ended an 8-0 Park rally to begin the second with a charity toss that made it 25-6. With the score 33-8 a short time later, freshman Emilee Knorr hit a 3 for the Bruins at the three-minute mark of the first half, the first points not scored by Bowman.
After trailing 38-14 at the break, Brooke scored the initial four points of the third period before Park hit the next seven and eventually took a 54-25 margin into the final eight minutes.
The Bruins at one point in the fourth quarter had more turnovers than total points. Brooke also attempted just 38 shots in the game, 41 fewer than the Patriots, who actually missed more shots (50) than the Bruins took.
"We shot the ball pretty decent from the outside, but Bowman definitely put some defensive pressure on us inside," Young said. "Bella (Abernathy) did finish well in there at times.
"Overall, we took care of the basketball, played good defense and did what we needed to do to win. We definitely went through the motions at times, which is understandable, but at the same time something that we have to do better at is staying focused with some big games coming up."
Johnson finished with a team-high 11 rebounds, while sophomore Lindsey Garrison hit three bonus bombs for nine points. Wheeling Park grabbed a 31-27 edge off the glass, while turning the ball over 17 times fewer than their guests.
Bowman led the way for Brooke with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds while senior Chrissy Byers added seven.
"They just outhustled us," Scherich said. "We talk about that kind of stuff all the time. Turnovers also killed us, but you just can't throw the ball away. So many times we just don't look up and survey what is in front of us, and it leads to foolish turnovers.
"We have to be better at finishing layups and not giving the other team so many opportunities. The game plan was to keep Hope inside and guard them on the outside, but for some reason we kept collapsing.
Wheeling Park 67, Brooke 31
Brooke 5-9-11-6 -- 31
Wheeling Park 17-21-16-13 -- 67
BROOKE: Bowman 6 4-6 16; Fox 2 0-0 5; Byers 3 1-1 7; Ryan 0 0-0 0; Buchmelter 0 0-0 0; Knorr 1 0-0 3; Weir 0 0-0 0; Orban 0 0-0 0; Groves 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 12, 5-7: 31.
WHEELING PARK: Woods 12 0-0 27; Pavlic 2 0-0 5; Snedeker 0 1-2 1; Johnson 3 0-0 6; Abernathy 7 1-1 15; Ne.Cook 0 0-0 0; Garrison 3 0-0 9; Jones 0 0-0 0; Ni.Cook 0 0-2 0; Chacalos 1 0-0 2; Stakem 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 29, 2-5: 67.
3-POINT GOALS: Fox, Knorr; Woods 3, Garrison 3, Pavlic.