ELKINS -- Neither team flinched, neither refused to give an inch as rivals West Fork and Elkins battled toe-to-toe in a triple-overtime clash Tuesday.
In the end, the last punch was thrown by the Lady Elks and after nearly two hours of basketball it was finally the knockout blow, giving Elkins a 50-43 win over West Fork in 3A-1 Conference girls' basketball action at Elkins' Gymnasium.
How They Scored
Girls
Elkins 50, West Fork 43 (3OT)
West Fork^12^5^4^14^3^4^1—^43
Elkins^5^12^8^10^3^4^8—^50
West Fork (15-9, 5-4): Griffin 14, Smith 12, Throgmorton 11, Karnes 4,
Greenlee 2.
Elkins (14-10, 7-3): Barrett 13, Hendrix 13, Pitts 9, Krodell 6, Welch 4, Stahman 3, Brink 2.
How They Scored
Boys
West Fork 51, Elkins 40
West Fork^13^16^10^12^—^51
Elkins^7^5^12^16^—^40
West Fork (14-8, 7-2): C. Roebke 17, R. Roebke 16, Crawford 8, Johnson 6, Hays 4. Elkins (4-14, 2-8): Casebolt 12, Metcalf 11, Trav. England 9, Vaught 5, Camp 2, Shumate 1.
"We won the war," Elkins girls basketball coach Monica Wells said. "Our girls kept fighting and we made some big shots.
"There's shots and then there's timely shots and we hit the timely shots tonight. I also thought we got the stops we needed on the other end."
Down 25-21 entering the fourth quarter, West Fork (15-9, 5-4 3A-1) rallied for a late lead in the final minute of regulation. Elkins then got a game-tying three-pointer from Paigely Barnett with 50 seconds left.
West Fork held for the last shot with the game tied at the end of the fourth quarter and the end of the second overtime, only to miss the game-winning shots both times.
"We had our opportunities," West Fork coach Rodney Selph said. "And we needed to get some stops. But both teams played really hard and credit them for the win.
"It was one where you hated to see a team lose, and I really hated that it was us."
Elkins (14-10, 7-3) clamped down on defense particularly well in the third overtime, holding the Lady Tigers to just one free throw and 0-for-3 from three-point range. Barnett gave the Lady Elks the lead for good with a 3-pointer with 3:13 left in the third overtime and Alicia Welch helped put the game away with a running lay-up at the 2:26 mark.
"We changed some things on defense since the last time we played (West Fork)," Wells said. "We did a better job defensively against them tonight."
Boys
West Fork 51, Elkins 40
Cody and Ryan Roebke combined for 33 points and sparked a strong first half as West Fork pulled away early from Elkins on Tuesday night in 3A-1 Conference boys' action at Elkins Gymnasium.
The Elks fell into a double-digit deficit early in the second quarter and were forced to play from behind the rest of the night, trimming the deficit to eight points in the fourth quarter.
Hunter Casebolt led the Elks (4-14, 2-8) with 12.
Vernon Tarver can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAVernon
Sports on 02/04/2015