John Bruce, Staff Writer
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
MINFORD — After trailing by 10 points late in Thursday’s first half, the Minford Falcons regrouped and pulled together.
CREDIT: Renee Nemeth/SOSA
Facing a hard-nosed group from Waverly, the Falcons erased that deficit and eventually handed the visiting Tigers a 47-45 loss in Southern Ohio Conference play.
The Falcons (11-4, 9-2 SOC II) jumped out to a quick start behind hot shooting from sophomore Lexi Conkel, but Waverly answered with a whole lot of Bailey Vulgamore.
Vulgamore, a West Virginia Tech commit, showed exactly why she’ll be playing at the next level with a variety of shot-making skills while also forcing a multitude of turnovers by jumping into the passing lanes. The senior scored seven of the Tigers’ nine first quarter points as they trailed the Falcons 13-9 after one.
Late in the first, the Tigers (7-5, 6-5 SOC II) called a timeout, and at the same time, the power temporarily went out. At that exact moment, it appeared that all the energy left the Falcons as well.
Following the blackout, Waverly went on an 18-4 run, highlighted by Vulgamore, Kelli Stewart and Paige O’Bryant. O’Bryant, a freshman, knocked down a one-footer jumper with just over two mintues left in the half to give the Tigers a 27-17 lead.
With the Tigers giving a lot of attention to Lindsee Williams and Marlee Pendleton inside, the Falcons needed a shot from the outside to open things up and that’s when Conkel stepped up to hit her second triple of the evening. On the ensuing possession, the Tigers missed a jumper, leading to a runout where Ava Cronin connected with Pendleton for a score in the paint to cut the Tigers lead to 27-22 at the half.
“It helps me tremendously,” Williams said of Pendleton’s play. “Marlee and I work so well together. We’re in and out, she plays post and I play post. We just have that connection. She played really well tonight.”
Vulgamore finished the first half with 17 points while truly dominating the Falcons on both ends of the floor. However, Minford played most of the first half without their top defender, Maggie Risner, who sat the majority of the half with two fouls. Risner was given the task to face guard Vulgamore, which she did at a high level, limiting Vulgamore’s touches in the scoring areas throughout the rest of the game.
PHOTOS: Images from Minford’s win over Waverly
“Maggie is a really good defender,” Conkel said. “She’s really good at getting into their leading scorer’s head and she knows how to play good, hard defense. She’s a very big help to our team.”
As Vulgamore was being keyed on by the Falcons, Minford turned up the defensive pressure to force six turnovers in the third quarter to complete their comeback. Pendleton scored on back-to-back trips off assists from Williams, as the 6-foot-4 center showed great skill by bringing the ball up against pressure.
“I wasn’t really expecting to play point guard a little bit,” Williams said. “It was really just my teammates getting doubled, so I had to take control. Once they got open, I passed it to them and we ran our offense.”
After the Falcons finally knotted the game at 29-29, Stewart made an outstanding left-handed drive for a tough three-point play to give the Tigers the lead at 32-29. Late in the quarter, with the Falcons down by a single point, Conkel was able to step into a 3 and knock down her third triple of the game to give Minford a 36-34 lead after three quarters of play.
“In warm-ups, I just really focused on getting an arch on the ball and not really getting down on myself if I miss a shot,” Conkel said. “Even though it didn’t go in, it was still a good shot. I knew I was a decently good 3-point shooter and I needed to keep shooting it.”
As the final minutes ticked away, Minford could not extend its lead. Every time that Williams would score on the interior, the Tigers would answer on the other end. Vulgamore was able to finally free herself of Risner to score on back-to-back possessions, tying the game on each.
With time running out, the Falcons were holding for the best possible shot late in the game. That shot came from Risner in the corner from 3. However, the sophomore immediately realized the shot was off-target and crashed the glass. Risner gathered her own miss and scored from eight feet out to give the Falcons the lead with under a minute to play.
BY THE NUMBERS
Vulgamore led both teams with a game-high 24 points, including going 10-of-11 from the free throw line, with her only miss being intentional. In fact, the Tigers shot a scorching 92.3% from the line for the game, while the Falcons only shot 50%. From the field, the Falcons only shot 34.5% for the game, but attempted 18 more shots than the Tigers due to holding a major rebounding advantage (+9), with Williams pulling down a game-high 11 boards. The Falcons finished the night with 10 turnovers, but only 1 coming after halftime, while the Tigers had 8 of their 15 turnovers in the second half.
Following a Tigers turnover, Williams would be fouled and split a pair of free throws to give the Falcons a 47-44 lead with 17.2 seconds to play. The Tigers did what they could to get Vulgamore a good look from 3, but she was forced to force up a tough shot and drew a foul.
However, it was signaled as only being a two-shot foul and not from three as it appeared to all of those wearing orange and black. Vulgamore netted the first before intentionally missing the second. But Risner knocked the ball away and the Falcons held on to a tight league victory.
The win keeps the Falcons in the SOC II race, staying within a game of league leaders West and Wheelersburg.
“I think we need to get better at controlling the ball and looking at our post [players],” Williams said. “Once we get it into the post, kick it out and get open shots, we can use our guards more and work as a team.”
BOX SCORE
Waverly: 9-18-7-11 — 45
Minford: 13-9-14-11 — 47
Waverly scoring: Vulgamore 24, Stewart 9, O’Bryant 8, Risner 2, Royster 2.
Minford scoring: Williams 17, Conkel 15, Pendleton 9, Risner 4, Cronin 2.
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