WILLIAMSON, W.Va. - “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That opening phrase from “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dicken’s is an apt way to describe the last two games for the Williamson Wolfpack girls basketball team.

On Saturday they defeated one of the best Class AAA teams in West Virginia by defeating Logan 60 to 55 in a double overtime thriller in the John C. Preece Tournament. That was one of the biggest and brightest wins for the Wolfpack girls programs in years.

Then came Wednesday night at the Williamson Fieldhouse. So much for the best of times.

The same girls Wolfpack team that excelled against Logan committed 28 turnovers and were virtually shut down from scoring on the inside and suffered a 19 -point defeat at the hands of one of their Class A sectional rivals, the Gilbert Lady Lions.

The Lions dominated the inside against the ‘Pack forcing them to turn to their perimeter scoring game which proved to be not enough against Gilbert’s high powered offense.

The Lions got big performances from their offense with three girls going into double figures in scoring. Kirstin Brown led all scorers with 17 points, Christina Browning had 15 points and Crystal Lester got 13 points.

“These girls have started together for three years and we look to them for our scoring. Usually our scoring varies from person to person.” said Gilbert Head Coach Don Taylor. “Every night it just depends. Tonight were able to look for the open shot and got the open person. Overall, I thought we just played well.”

“We knew Williamson was extremely athletic coming in, although we thought we had the edge in speed.” said Taylor. “ Our defense just got the match-ups we needed and that was a big part of the win.”

Wolfpack Coach Robin Porter thought that she had the edge in physicality and athleticism coming in too. But her team’s performance was mystifying to even her.

“Turnovers killed us and keep killing us. Until we can take care of the ball, we ‘re going to suffer losses like this “ Porter said after the game, visibly disgusted by her team’s performance.

Jessica Browning scored 15 points to lead the 'Pack followed by Erica Hatfield and Sharrell Barnes with 5 points each. Browning hit three three pointers as part of her 15.

The lack of inside scoring was a big key in both the loss to Gilbert and for much of the season according to Porter.

“This game came down to one simple difference: their big girl scored 17 and mine scored 5 - end of story.” Porter said. “For us to win, we have to have bigger scoring numbers from Sharrell. It’s that simple. We have to have bigger numbers from her to win.”

Foul totals were unusual in this game as both teams committed 6 in the first half, 11 in the second for a total of 17 on the game.

For Gilbert, they have three big games coming up against Montcalm, Man and Tug Valley. For Williamson, their next challenge is Big Creek tonight on the road.

“Hopefully we’ll get the offense clicking tonight and move on. We’ll have to hope and see.”

Gilbert moves to 9 and 3 on the season while Williamson drops to 6 and 7.

Score by quarters:



Gilbert..................................11 13 13 21 -- 58

Williamson...........................10 7 9 13 -- 39

Scoring by Teams:

Gilbert (9-3):



Megan Thomas 6, Kirstin Brown 17, Britnee Gibson 3, Crystal Lester 13, Keasha Browning 15, Danielle Butcher 4.

Williamson (6-7):



Erica Hatfield 5, Sharrell Barnes 5, Devan Maynard 4, Jessica Fields 14, Olivia Banks 4, Shareekua Jones 3, Taylor Elkins 2, Mackenzie Stapleton 2.