Lady Elks Earn Outright Title

Elkins players, coaches and fans react to the Lady Elks’ 39-35 win over Greenland to secure the team’s conference championship Friday at Elkins High.

Elkins players, coaches and fans react to the Lady Elks’ 39-35 win over Greenland to secure the team’s conference championship Friday at Elkins High.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

— Time and again this season, Elkins has shown an ability to play well in close games. The Lady Elks had to prove Friday they can also handle big pressure.

With an outright 3A-1 West Conference championship on the line, Elkins turned up the defense when it mattered the most.

ELKINS 39, GREENLAND 35

Greenland 7 8 12 8 — 35

Elkins 8 7 12 12 — 39

Greenland (10-12, 5-2): Rogers 8, Brown 7, Riggles 7, Thompson 6, Vaughn 5, Miller 2.

Elkins (14-10, 7-1): Wilson 19, Johnson 8, Hendrix 5, Welch 5, Dyke 2.

Boys

Elkins 48, Greenland 34

Dillon Gash scored a game-high 16 points and the Elks locked up the No. 3 seed in the 3A-1 West district tournament by pulling away from Greenland early in the second half.

Mitchell Clark added 12 points for Elkins (5-15, 4-4 3A-1 West), who built a 25-15 lead at halftime and never led by less than double digits the rest of the way.

ELKINS 48, GREENLAND 34

Greenland 6 9 13 6 — 34

Elkins 9 16 13 10 — 48

Greenland (1-17, 1-6): Giddens 16, Farrar 11, McClanahan 3, Slack 2, Hooper 1, Johnson 1.

Elkins (5-15, 4-4): Gash 16, Clark 12, Fallen 7, White 6, Harris 2, Deloney 2, Slammons 2, Danel 1.

Battling rival Greenland to a tie through three quarters, the Lady Elks pulled away in the closing minutes and captured the district title with a 39-35 win over the Lady Pirates in Elkins Gymnasium.

“All these 15 girls deserve the credit, even the ones who didn’t play tonight,” Elkins girls basketball coach Monica Wells said. “They all worked so hard and that’s what we talked about was what was on the line.

“We’ve won games when we’ve been behind, and we’ve won when we’ve been ahead. But I didn’t know how we’d play with everything on the line. That’s the bottom line. Everything was on the line and our kids responded.”

Greenland (10-12, 5-2 3A-1 West) appeared to be in trouble midway through the third quarter, falling behind 27-19 after giving up a 12-1 run to Elkins (14-10, 7-1). But the Lady Pirates picked up the pressure defense, forcing nine third-quarter turnovers to score the last eight points of the period.

In the fourth quarter, though, shots simply didn’t fall for Greenland as it finished 2-for-11 from the field in the quarter to cap a subpar 12-for-39 shooting performance on the night.

“We just didn’t make shots,” Greenland coach Alan Barton said. “It was just like our last game with them. Elkins is a good team, and they’re big and they defended us well. But we had the shots.”

Andrea Wilson scored a game-high 19 points for Elkins — 10 of which came in the third quarter — and Skyler Johnson added eight points and nine rebounds.

Anna Rogers led Greenland with eight points.

Elkins is finished with its conference schedule and plays at Jasper on Tuesday, awaiting the start of the district tournament on Feb. 12. The Lady Pirates still have one conference game remaining, at West Fork on Tuesday.