WEST FORK -- West Fork took the word of the week to heart Friday night.
"We talked about perseverance," West Fork coach Cody Vaught said. "We told our kids on the bench to never give up, and they never did."
Girls West Fork 50, Elkins 40
Elkins^8^3^16^13^—^40
West Fork^6^10^15^19—^50
Elkins: Miller 10, Kestner 10, Coleman 9, Diaville 5, Harris 6.
West Fork (20-0): Griffin 14, Greenlee 12, Haas-Selvidge 10, Tedford 9, Kutz 3, Hauser 2.
Boys
West Fork 58, Elkins 55
Elkins^12^23^11^9^—^55
West Fork^12^10^21^15^—^58
Elkins (8-7): Graham 17, Lewis 13, Evans 9, Hipps 8, Stills 6, Shackleford 2.
West Fork (12-8): Burks 21, Hays 17, Treat 10, Poplin 4, Pennington 3, Bivens 2, Franklin 1.
West Fork needed every bit of its perseverance to overcome a 13-point deficit and defeat Elkins 58-55 in 3A/4A District 1 action at the Tigers' gym. West Fork outplayed Elkins after trailing 35-22 at halftime and 45-34 in the third quarter. Jeff Treat and Brenon Burks hit consecutive 3-pointers to ignite the comeback for West Fork (12-8), which needed a victory after losing 56-44 to Prairie Grove earlier in the week.
"We had lost five of our last six games to some really good teams," West Fork coach Cody Vaught said. "So, this was an important win."
Elkins, which played well in the first half, missed shots and committed unforced errors in the fourth quarter. Twice the Elks dribbled a ball off their foot for a turnover, and had a wide-open layup miss everything.
West Fork made three free throws in the final seconds after Ethan Hipps hit a 3-pointer to tie the game 55-55 with one minute, 26 seconds left to play.
Hipps threw up another 3-point attempt before the buzzer, but the shot failed to hit the rim.
Chad Graham scored 17 points and Colten Lewis 13 for the Elks (8-7).
"We didn't shoot the ball in the second half as well as we did the first half and we had some unforced errors," Elkins coach Jared Porter said. "It ended up costing us but all credit to West Fork. They earned the win."
Elkins used a spree of 3-pointers in the first half to turn a 12-12 tie into a 35-22 lead. Elkins connected on five 3-pointers off the hands four players to grab take its 13-point lead.
"They shot over 80 percent from the free-throw line in the first half and we knew it was hard to keep shooting that good," Vaught said. "We kept playing defense and some of our shots that didn't go down in the first half went in in the second half."
West Fork was led offensively by Burks, a sophomore, who scored most of his 21 points from the perimeter. Dalton Hays added 17 points, mostly on strong moves to the basket.
"Dalton finds ways to get inside when you don't think he can beat people," Vaught said. "He just somehow wiggles around and finds a way to finish."
GIRLS
West Fork 50, Elkins 40
West Fork (20-0) finished the game with a 9-0 run to remain unbeaten on the season.
West Fork led by one point before Joei Haas-Selvidge made a 3-pointers with 1:13 left to play. Sara Greenlee then followed with six consecutive free throws to put the game out of reach. West Fork played without leading scorer Shannon Throgmorton, who missed the game with a broken pinky.
Throgmorton could miss a handful of games while she recovers.
Sports on 01/21/2017