Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

PEDRO — There’s hot shooting, and then there’s Brooke Smith.

The Wheelersburg senior guard hit 9-of-11 field goal attempts in the first half including all five 3-point attempts as the Lady Pirates beat the South Point Lady Pointers 65-40 Sunday in the Division III sectional finals.

Scoring 25 of her 29 points in the first half enabled the Lady Pirates to build a 17-point lead.

“When they rotated the ball, that left her open. Did she miss one in the first half?” Lady Pointers’ coach Dave Adams asked.

South Point did manage to cut the deficit to 11, but the early onslaught was too much to overcome.

Abbey Winkler had 14 points and Brooklyn Badgett 10 to lead the Lady Pointers who finished the season 5-18. Olivia Abner had six rebounds.

Besides Smith, Kalle Coleman scored 12 points and Sydney Holden added 11 points and eight rebounds. Makayla Akers had nine rebounds.

The Lady Pirates were 14-of-29 from the field in the first half and 8-of-12 from behind the arc. They were 10-of-24 in the second half and 1-of-5 from the 3-point line.

“We did a better job of finding her in the second half, but they have a lot of other weapons. It’s like pick your poison. And when you’re not shooting a great percentage and you’re not getting a lot of rebounds, it’s hard to stay with a team like that. They’re ranked in the state.,” said Adams.

Smith scored 14 points in the first quarter to help Wheelersburg to a 20-13 lead. Badgett had 6 points for South Point.

Holden, Smith and Coleman all hit 3-pointers to start the second quarter and it was 29-13. Winkler hit a trifecta and a layup to make it 29-18, but Wheelersburg pulled away to a 39-22 halftime lead.

The spread stayed virtually the same until the final five minutes of the game when Wheelersburg went on a 10-0 run to lead 65-36 with 2:33 to play.

Winkler is the lone South Point senior and Adams said the team’s improvement throughout the season bodes well for next year.

“I thought our kids played hard. They’re a lot different team than they were at the beginning of the year. We have a lot of freshman. Abbey had a good game today,” said Adams.

South Point 13 9 11 7 = 40

Wheelersburg 20 19 12 14 = 65

SOUTH POINT (5-18): Haley Rawlins 2 0 0-1 4, Brooklyn Badgett 5 0 0-0 10, Madison Kearns 0 0 3-6 3, Olivia Abner 2 0 1-1 5, Abbey Winkler 2 3 1-2 14, Emilee Powell 0 0 0-0 0, Leah Lawson 2 0 0-0 4, Abbey Hannah 0 0 0-0 0, Adara Deeds 0 0 0-0 0, Miranda Boyd 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 16-49 5-10 40. 3-point goals: 3-17. Rebounds: 12-off. 17-def. = 29 (Abner 6, Rawlins 4, Lawson 4). Team rebounds: 7. Assists: 4 (Winkler 2). Steals: 9 (Kearns 3, Badgett 2). Turnovers: 22. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None.

WHEELERSBURG (20-2): Brooke Smith 6 5 2-2 29, Kalle Coleman 3 2 0-0 12, Sydney Holden 4 1 0-2 11, Brooklyn Adams 0 1 3-4 6, Makayla Akers 2 0 0-0 4, Ellie Ruby 0 0 3-6 3, Brittany Swim 0 0 0-0 0, Leann Spradlin 0 0 0-0 0, Morgan Willoughby 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-53 8-14 65. 3-point goals: 9-17. Rebounds: 14-off. 23-def. = 37 (Akers 9, Holden 8, Adams 5, Coleman 5). Assists: 7 (Holden 3). Steals: 13 (Smith 6, Coleman 4). Turnovers: 16. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.