Led by a team-high 14 points from junior forward Elle Williams, the West Plains Lady Zizzers crashed Hillcrest's Senior Night party on Monday by grabbing an impressive 55-39 win in their penultimate road contest of the regular season.
West Plains (15-9, 3-4 OC), looking to hit on all cylinders with districts looming, managed to propel to a 20-6 lead in the early moments of the second quarter and never looked back – limiting the Lady Hornets (11-11, 4-4 OC) to their lowest scoring output since a 50-35 loss to Nixa on Dec. 29.
“I thought our defense was really good,” Lady Zizzers head coach Scott Womack said. “We did what we were wanting to do against [Hillcrest] tonight. I thought we did a nice job.”
From the opening tip, Hillcrest kept its attention largely on West Plains' junior standout Payton Richards – implementing a defensive look designed to keep the Drury commit in check.
While the Lady Hornets were successful in their efforts to leave Richards without a single point to her name in the first quarter, it was Williams who took the reigns by tallying nine of her team's 15 points over the first eight minutes.
“When they were playing the box-and-one a lot early on Payton [Richards], we had to have somebody step up,” Womack said. “I thought Elle did that.”
After the Lady Hornets clawed back to within six at 25-19 by halftime, a level of uneasiness started to linger over Womack's club – but thanks to a flurry of fouls committed by Hillcrest in the opening minutes of the second half, the new plan of attack became quickly apparent for West Plains.
“When we looked up in the middle of the third quarter and we were already in the bonus, we were saying 'we've got to attack, we've got to attack,'” said Womack.
Thus began a relentless charge into the low post for the Lady Zizzers, who bullied their way inside to create contact and essentially make the free-throw line their home.
Shooting just six foul shots in the first half, West Plains got to the charity stripe a grand total of 29 times over the final 16 minutes of play – making good on 20 of its 35 free-throw attempts on the night to once again create separation on the scoreboard.
Eight different Lady Zizzers were able to get to the line, while seven of them managed to sink at least one free-throw.
“They're definitely not one or two dimensional,” Hillcrest head coach Jeni Hopkins said of West Plains. “They're pretty balanced and I think they do a lot of really good things as a unit.”
Sophomore Kendra Davidson finished closely behind Williams with 11 points, while Richards finished with eight points after posting just two points in the first half. Senior Laurnea Jarman led all Hillcrest scorers with 14 points in the losing effort.
With just two games remaining in the regular season for both squads, West Plains returns home to square off with Joplin as Hillcrest travels to Camdenton for its Ozark Conference finale. Both games will take place on Thursday.
Box Score
West Plains – 15 10 16 14 – 55
Hillcrest – 6 13 11 9 – 39
West Plains – Elle Williams 14, Kendra Davidson 11, Camryn Johnson 9, Payton Richards 8, Lily Harris 6, Caitlin Jones 4, Abee Shelton 2, Hailey Meeks 1
Hillcrest – Laurnea Jarman 14, Kaycee Gerald 12, Jordan Pryor 7, Mikhala McCullough 2, Sarah Hale 2, Witney Williams 2
