MV girls score first win, beating Crest

MORAN — Points were at a premium Friday evening in the Marmaton Valley High gymnasium.
In the end, Marmaton Valley High’s girls did just enough on offense, while keeping the visiting Crest High Lady Lancers at bay in a 27-25 win.
The Wildcats won despite scoring four points in each of the third and fourth quarters — none in the last 4:50 of the game — and hitting only 1 of 13 free throws in the contest.
The deciding points came on consecutive possessions after  Crest’s Katrina Strickler drained a jumper to tie the game at 23-23 with about six minutes left in the contest. The Lady Lancers held on Marmaton Valley’s next possession and took the ball with a chance to take the lead.
But Marmaton Valley’s Cheyanne Miller stole the ball at midcourt and raced in for a layup and a 25-23 lead with 5:11 left. Another steal led to Kailey Boyd’s layup and a 27-23 lead with 4:50 left.
Strickler drained another jumper with 2:06 left to cut the gap to two.
But that was it for the points. Marmaton Valley missed on all seven of its free throw attempts in the fourth quarter, including six misses in the last two minutes, but Crest could not get any of its shots to fall.
The Lady Lancers had three possessions in the final 30 seconds, all of which came up empty.
“Free throws killed us, and we still have a lot of things we need to improve on: rebounding, setting up our offense,” Wildcat head coach Kent Houk said.
The game may have been decided early on in the contest, when Marmaton Valley raced to an 11-4 lead, thanks to some nifty passing that led to open shots inside.
But Crest’s defense adjusted, clogging the lane and forcing the Wildcats to shoot from outside.
The Lady Lancers closed to within 19-15 at halftime, and 23-21 after three.
Boyd led the Wildcats with 10 points and two steals. Miller added eight points and five boards. Morgan Henry pulled down eight boards, while Maggie Meiwes had five rebounds.
Crest was led by Strickler’s eight points. Ashley Catt added six.
Marmaton Valley travels to St. Paul Tuesday. Crest travels to Altoona-Midway next Friday.
Crest (4-11-6-4—25): Catt 3-0-4-6, K. Strickler 4-0-2-8, Ku. Gilliland 2-1-3-5, Holman 1-0-1-2, Ko. Gilliland 2-0-5-4. TOTALS: 12-1-15-25.
Marmaton (11-8-4-4—27): Miller 4-0-1-8, Boyd 5-0-2-10, Shadden 0-0-2-0, Meiwes 1-0-2-2, McEndree 0-0-1-0, Henry 1-1-1-3, Ensminger 2-0-3-4, Endicott 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 13-1-14-27.