Lady Panthers battle past Lady Hornets
Published 5:00 am Friday, January 22, 2010
COAL GROVE — If the Chesapeake Lady Panthers order a sandwich, there’s not much of a chance they’ll tell the waitress to “Hold the Mayo.”
It was almost impossible to “Hold the Mayo” in the fourth quarter as Sarah Mayo came up big to lead the Lady Panthers past the Coal Grove Lady Hornets 48-40 Thursday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.
Chesapeake led by just two points at the end of the third quarter when Mayo took over in the fourth quarter. She scored 13 of her 20 points including 8-of-9 from the foul line. She also had 4 steals.
“Mayo did a good job handling the ball and taking over the game for us. A lot of her opportunities came off steals she made,” said Chesapeake coach Chris Ball. “Courtney Heffner played really well defensively in the second half.”
Coal Grove (5-7, 2-4) led 22-18 at the half but managed just 8 points in the third quarter.
“We just couldn’t score in the second half. We played great defense. Mayo in the fourth quarter just took over and we didn’t have an answer for her,” said Lady Hornets’ coach Nick Miller.
Kimmie Bennett added 18 points and 6 rebounds for Chesapeake (9-3, 5-0) who won its seventh straight. Amanda Ruffner grabbed 7 rebounds.
Ashley Adkins scored 14 points and Chelsea Delong 9 to pace Coal Grove.
Chesapeake jumped out to a 14-3 lead to start the game as Bennett scored 5 points, but Coal Grove got seven unanswered points to end the quarter and it was 14-10.
Kelli McMackin had all 5 of her points in the second quarter as the Lady Hornets rallied to go up 22-18 at the half.
But Bennett scored 9 points in the third quarter as Chesapeake rallied to go up 32-30.
“Give credit to Coal Grove. They’re committed to a style of play. They played well defensively and we played terrible offensively. We weren’t aggressive on offense, but we played well enough to win,” said Ball.
Chesapeake 14 4 14 16 = 48
Coal Grove 10 12 8 10 = 40
CHESAPEAKE (10-3, 5-0): Sarah Mayo 1 2 12-13 20, Amanda Ruffner 1 0 1-4 3, Courtney Heffner 2 0 0-0 4, Allison Chapman 0 0 1-2 1, Maggie Smith 1 0 0-0 2, Kimmie Bennett 7 1 1-1 18, Ashley Jenkins 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 3 15-20 48. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None.
COAL GROVE (5-7, 2-4): Ashley Adkins 1 2 6-10 14, Kelli McMackin 1 1 0-0 5, Taylor Fleming 2 0 0-0 4, Amanda Collins 2 0 0-1 4, Chelsea Delong 4 0 1-1 9, Darrien Hankins 1 0 2-2 4. Totals: 11 3 9-14 40. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: McMackin.
RESERVES: Chesapeake 19-13. Chesapeake leader: Jackie Nelson 6. Coal Grove leader: Cheyenne Bellomy 5.