The No. 2 Seeded Rangers used solid defensive play to lay claim to their third Mingo County Girls Middle School Championship in the last four years.
Whitney Evans scored 18 points and DesRae Vance scored 17 points to power Lenore’s offense to victory. Their totals represented 35 of Lenore’s game total of 42 points which was impressive by any measure. Their stellar performance throughout the tournament and particularly in the championship tilt landed them the honor of being named the 2009 Tournament Co-MVP’s. For the tournament, Evans had 32 total points and Vance garnered 35 total points. Vance also won the tournament foul shooting contest hitting 24 of 25 shots.
The Ranger’s came out early and ran to a 10 to 4 first quarter lead over the tournament No. 1 seeded Lady Lions Club.
The Lady Lions would not give up though and the rallied their defense back together to hold Lenore to only 5 points in the second frame while their offense garnered 7 points to make the halftime mark Lenore 15, Gilbert 11.
Lenore made no real adjustments coming out of the half, picking up the same relentless pace defensively they had shown throughout the game. Offensively, the team made excellent shot selections and outscored Gilbert 12 to 6 in the 3rd quarter. This made the score Lenore 27, Gilbert 17 going into the fourth quarter.
Both teams came out shooting for their lives in the fourth quarter, Gilbert trying to overcome Lenore’s ten point lead and the Rangers attempting to seal the deal on the victory,With both offenses going full out, the two teams put up a combined total of 28 points in the fourth with Lenore outscoring the Lady Lions 15 to 13 and garnering a 42 to 30 win over Gilbert and securing the County Championship in the process.
Ranger’s Head Coach Rose Ledger and Assistant Coach Natasha Ooten were ecstatic about their team’s win after the game. “The win was a total team effort and the girls had worked extremely hard all season.” said Ledger. “I felt the difference in the game was the outstanding defense played by the entire team and the outside shooting of Whitney Evans and DesRae Vance and their ability to drive the ball to the basket.”
Gilbert, the No. 1 seed who had been highly favored to win the championship, was led in scoring in the contest by Candace Trent who had 10 points and by Christy Farmer, who had 7 points.
The All-Tournament Team will be ran later this week in the WDN Sports Pages.
Scoring by Quarters:
Lenore- 10 5 12 15 - 42
Gilbert- 4 7 6 13 - 30
Scoring by team:
Lenore: Whitney Evans 18, DesRae Vance 17, Katie McCoy 5, Taylor Runyon 2.
Gilbert: Candace Trent 10, Christy Farmer 7 , Shawna Browning 3, Chelsia Browning 4, Danielle Browning 4, Paige Mullins 2.
Ward Griffith