Fort Scott girls collect first victory

By Scott Nuzum

Herald-Tribune

PITTSBURG, Kan. -- Fort Scott's girls gained their first victory of the season Friday night and very likely shattered defensive records in doing so.

The Tigers (1-4) held Pittsburg to three field goals on the night in a 43-9 victory over the winless Purple Dragons.

That's not a misprint. Nine points.

With the clock running constantly in the fourth quarter due to the 30-point mercy rule, only one point was scored in that period. Without that rule, Pittsburg (0-5) might have reached double figures.

"I'm so picky though that I (was) telling the girls, 'You gave their best shooter a wide-open shot over there'," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said with a smile. "And the girls, I'm sure, are sitting there going, 'Coach, they've only got seven points.'

"The girls played so hard. Defensively, I told them I was very impressed. We still got to keep our hands off people a little bit. The intensity is there."

Kori Page Rienbolt scored 12 points to lead the Tigers while Jayci McKenney had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Fort Scott scored the first six points of the game on its way to a 19-4 lead after the first period of play. All Pittsburg got in the second was two free throws as the Tigers extended the margin to 29-6.

With three minutes to go in the third, Joce Allen scored a transition bucket that made it 40-7. Jordan Lemmon then scored a field goal for Pittsburg to break a team 0-for-13 streak from the field. Those were Pittsburg's last two points of the night.

Rienbolt's transition basket with 2:08 to go in the third was the last field goal of the night, making it 42-9 after three. Hannah Hawkins scored the only point of the fourth on a free throw with 1:06 left in the game.

Pittsburg made three field goals in 29 attempts while Fort Scott was 14 of 40. The Tigers also made 17 of 21 free-throw tries and picked up 16 steals. Allen had six of them. The Dragons turned the ball over 27 times.

"We had one of those players (Krista Goltra) last year who was able to sniff out what the other team was going to do and anticipate it," Armstrong said. "And we've talked a lot about, 'Hey, ladies, you can be the same way.' It's about anticipating what they're going to do next and reacting to that. And if you can react, you get a lot of steals, get some people out in the open and get some layups."

The Tigers also won the battle of the boards, 33-23. Hawkins had six rebounds for Fort Scott.

"We're rebounding a little bit better," Armstrong said. "And that will help us with our transition, which we still need to work on. We're still not seeing the floor exactly like we want to. But it's a step in the right direction."

No one scored more than two points for Pittsburg.

In the junior varsity game, Fort Scott took a 39-14 win as Katelyn Simpson scored 15 points and Moncia Dikeman added 11 as she made four three-point field goals.

The Tigers will play Tuesday night at Webb City, Mo., before taking their holiday break.