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Fort Scott girls fall at home to LCHS
FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- When Jolee Sharp was held in check by Labette County Friday night, Megan McDermed stepped up again just as she did in Pittsburg on Tuesday night.
But the rest of the Tigers produced only six points combined while Labette County had several players step up while McKenna Britton struggled to a three-point night just three days after scoring 20 against Iola on Tuesday. This was the difference as Labette County went on to a 43-37 victory in Southeast Kansas League play.
Sharp has scored the majority of the Tigers' points this season and McDermed is starting to step into the scoring role it was assumed she would take at the beginning of the season. Now the Tigers need a third option and is hasn't shown itself yet.
"We've been talking to Megan about this," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Arnstrong said. "If teams are going to start double-teaming or completely shifting their man-to-man or zones, Jo's going to have a hard time getting easy looks. So it's been great to see Megan step up and make some shots and to relieve some of that tension because that's what we're going to see this year. A lot of times, they're going to try to take as much of Jo away as possible.
"But we'll have to find more people. Looking at the stat sheet, I see on with four (points) and one with two. That's not enough. We've got to have other people involved in the offense. The girls know it. The girls have to be confident they can put up two, four, six points."
Sharp led the Tigers (1-1 SEK, 2-3 overall) with 17 points but the Grizzlies (2-0, 2-0) held her to two points in the third quarter and none in the fourth. Sharp was able to take just two shots from the floor in the fourth, so intent was LCHS on denying her.
McDermed had six points in the third as the Tigers tried to hold onto a 24-20 halftime lead. LCHS tied the score early in the third as Shelbie Foister started the second half with a layup and Tiare Ford added a layup.
McDermed followed with a 3-point shot to put the Tigers back in front, 27-24, with 4:25 to go. But Chelsea Nalley scored a layup for LCHS and Foister added a jumper to put the Grizzlies ahead, 28-27, with 3:10 left.
McDermed drained another three to put Fort Scott in front once again with just under 3 minutes to go. But Nally tied with with 2:39 left and Britton scored her only field goal of the night with 1:40 left to give the Grizzlies a 32-30 lead.
Sharp hit a floater with 1.3 seconds to go to tie the score at 32-32 going into the final stanza.
Stormy Smith put LCHS back in front with a stickback basket. Foister, who took over the scoring load, finishing with 16 points to lead the Grizzlies, put her team up by four with a turnaround jumper.
McDermed converted a three-point play with exactly 3 minutes to go to bring the Tigers within one. But that was their only field goal of the period and they'd score only two more points the rest of the way.
The Grizzlies finished the game by scoring the final five points of the contest.
This was the fifth game for the Tigers in eight days since beginning the second at the Willard Four State Classic the Thursday before. That may have began to show as the game wore on.
"You could tell we were getting a little winded," Armstrong said. "We were scoring a lot of transition points early on, getting steals. In the second half, I'm not sure we scored transition points and we didn't score many points at all in the second half."
McDermed and Sharp helped the Tigers break an early 4-4 tie and go out to a 14-6 lead after one period of play. That lead eventually grew to as large as 20-11 with 2:58 remaining after Courtney Carpenter took a steal in for a layup.
That looked to spark the Tigers but it apparently acted as one for the Grizzlies instead, perhaps upset they had given up the points. LCHS scored the next seven points in succession but Sharp's baseline drive with exactly 1 minute remaining made it 22-18.
Michaela O'Brien scored a layup to bring Labette County within 22-20 with 51 seconds left. But Sharp put the margin back at four with two free throws with 39 seconds to go.
Labette County shot 35 percent from the field, making 18 of 52 shots from the floor. Fort Scott shot 32 percent on 13 of 41 but made only four of 18 fielders in the second half.
Sharp and McDermed had 11 rebounds each but LCHS controlled the boards for a 39-33 advantage. The Tigers committed 21 turnovers, the Grizzlies 17.
In the junior varsity contest, Labette County took a 43-23 victory. Sidney Maycumber led the Tigers with six points and Jade Weeter scored five.
In the freshman game, Fort Scott took a 37-36 win as Tiera Floyd scored 22 points.
The Tigers head back on the road Tuesday for a Southeast Kansas League game at Independence.