Second Half Surge Lifts Elkins Girls Past Greenland

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

— The view from atop the 3A-1 West Conference standings looks mighty nice to the Elkins Lady Elks. But the climb to the top didn’t come without a fight Tuesday.

ELKINS 49, GREENLAND 42

Elkins 8 10 17 14 — 49

Greenland 14 6 9 13 — 42

Elkins (11-6, 4-0): Johnson 16, Wilson 14, Hendrix 9, Krodell 4, Welch 4, Skaggs 2.

Greenland (7-10, 2-1): Rogers 16, Vaughn 11, Thompson 8, Riggles 6, Miller 1.

Elkins once again found itself in an early hole, forced to scratch and claw from behind. But just like in its previous conference road win Friday at West Fork, the Lady Elks showed Tuesday’s host Greenland that playing the role of road warriors is no problem for this bunch in a 49-42 come-from-behind win in Dee Lee Gymnasium.

Elkins turned an 18-8 deficit early in the second quarter into just a 20-18 margin at the half, using strong post play from Skyler Johnson and Mariah Hendrix and tough defense on the outside to shut down Greenland’s dangerous long-range threats.

“What I like about those two kids (Johnson and Hendrix) is they’re big posts, and they’re also not afraid to get out front and play defense,” Elkins coach Monica Wells said. “For the most part, we were giving them just one look at the basket, so we were making good stops.”

The Lady Elks (11-6, 4-0 3A-1 West) then began to pour it on in the second half, building a eight point lead as Greenland (7-10, 2-1) was held to three field goals in the third quarter.

“Don’t discredit Elkins. They did a great job and we didn’t play well,” Lady Pirates coach Alan Barton said. “We had a bunch of girls who were scared and everybody was afraid to do something.

“We can usually score some points, but Elkins, they were bigger than us and we couldn’t do anything.”

Greenland did rally and pulled within one point with 5:56 left to play on a pair of Anna Rogers free throws. But Elkins responded with a 6-0 run to help put the game away.

Johnson finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds and Hendrix had 9 points and six rebounds for Elkins in the win. Rogers paced the Lady Pirates with 16.

Elkins visits Kansas, Okla. on Thursday and Greenland hosts West Fork on Friday.

Boys

Elkins 57, Greenland 28

After a closely fought first quarter, Elkins pulled away for good right before halftime before enforcing the sportsmanship rule in a win at Greenland on Tuesday.

Dillon Gash led the way with 14 for the Elks. Calvin Giddens paced the Pirates with 14.

Greenland won the junior high boys game, 46-31.

ELKINS 57, GREENLAND 28

Elkins 12 14 22 9 — 57

Greenland 8 7 6 7 — 28

Elkins (4-12, 2-2): Gash 14, Clark 12, Fallen 10, White 9, Slammons 3, Harris 3, Delong 3, Holzhauser 2, Daniels 1.

Greenland (1-8, 0-3): Giddens 14, Farrar 7, Johnson 2, McDonald 2, Honeycutt 2, Hooper 1.