OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman
Westfield’s Naomi Ottey attempts to get by Sherman’s Isa Kioko during Friday’s CCAA Division 2 girls basketball game at Westfield Academy & Central School.
WESTFIELD — Except for an 18-point loss to Cassadaga Valley late last month, Sherman’s girls basketball team hadn’t trailed entering the fourth quarter of any game this season.
The Wildcats found themselves in that situation Friday night.
Emily Eckwahl’s team found a way to rally and stay unbeaten in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 2 action.
Senior Kelsey Wagner scored 8 of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, including a go-ahead 3-pointer with 4:38 remaining, as the Wildcats beat Westfield 46-40 to improve to 11-1 overall and 8-0 in the league.
“We needed to have a game like this to see what we are made of … to get these younger girls that close-game experience to draw from in big postseason games,” Eckwahl, Sherman’s head coach, said postgame.
OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman
Sherman’s Emmersen Crawford drives between Westfield’s Sophia Wolfe (10) and Naomi Ottey (22) during Friday’s CCAA Division 2 girls basketball game at Westfield Academy & Central School.
The Wolverines, who lost to Sherman 39-22 the first time the teams met back in early December, led by two entering the final eight minutes Friday after freshman Reagan Weingart beat the shot clock with a bucket to make it 34-32 with 1:07 left in the third quarter.
“The evolution of this team depends on whether or not they can identify whether or not to speed up the game or slow it down and back it out when it’s time,” said Westfield head coach Chris Dole. “Today, all but a little, brief two- to three-minute stretch in the first half, that happened.”
The lead changed hands two more times in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter as Wagner made a 3-pointer with 6:43 left and Weingart scored on a second-chance basket with 5:35 remaining.
That set the stage for Wagner’s second 3-pointer of the period and fourth of the game just less than a minute later.
“We were trying to force her to drive left. … We lost her,” Dole said of Wagner. “When the ball swung we helped and the girls weren’t supposed to help. To her credit, she knocked them down.”
After Westfield missed two opportunities to tie the game or take the lead, Sherman sophomore Carlie Gable banked in a 3-pointer of her own to make it a 41-36 game.
“We expected it to be a really physical game coming in here. In the first half, they made us play at a pace that we weren’t quite prepared to play at,” Eckwahl said. “Once we slowed it down and ran our tempo, remembered we controlled the ball, we could settle in and get our shooters in rhythm.”
Twice down the stretch, the Wolverines made it a three-point game, once on a bucket from junior Mackenzie Schumaker and then on a basket from junior Sophia Wolfe.
But Wagner made a free throw with 1:02 remaining to push the Wildcats’ lead back to five and senior Isa Kioko’s free throw with 17 seconds remaining made the 46-40 final score.
“We have a lot of girls who can hit those big shots. It was her night tonight,” Eckwahl said of Wagner. “Each of my seniors had a big play. Isa had a big free throw and Teagan’s defense was stifling with four fouls. They each had a hand in it.”
Gable was the only other Sherman player in double figures with 10 points.
Schumaker led Westfield with 14 points.
The Wolverines will return to league play next Thursday at Silver Creek, while Sherman hosts nonleague Southwestern on Tuesday.
NOTES: Emmersen Crawford and Jayne Chambers each had five rebounds; Crawford and Teagan Gratto each had five steals; and Madison Emory and Crawford each had three assists for Sherman, which shot 14 of 51 from the field, including 7 of 31 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 18 times. … Weingart had seven rebounds, Sydney Hotchkiss had six rebounds and Olivia Wolfe had six assists for Westfield, which shot 16 of 55 from the field, including 3 of 13 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 24 times.
SHERMAN (46)
Gable 3 1 10, Emory 0 2 2, Kioko 0 1 1, Chambers 2 0 4, Crawford 2 2 6, Wagner 7 3 21, Gratto 0 2 2, Oehlbeck 0 0 0. Totals 14 11 46.
WESTFIELD (40)
SWolfe 3 1 7, Hotchkiss 2 3 7, Douglas 0 1 1, Burgess 0 0 0, Corbett 0 0 0, Weingart 3 0 6, OWolfe 0 0 0, Ottey 2 0 5, Schumaker 6 0 14. Totals 16 5 40.
3-point goals–Gable 3, Wagner 4, Ottey, Schumaker 2.
Sherman 19 9 4 14 — 46
Westfield 19 4 11 6 — 40