Sports
Waterford Lady Wildcats Claw Past Federal Hocking Lady Lancers
By: Clark Wicks
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The Waterford Lady Wildcats (13-2) showed why they’re the number one team in division IV basketball in their 63-23 win over the Federal Hocking Lady Lancers (7-9) Monday night.
Led by junior forward Alli Kern’s 15 points, the Lady Wildcats extended their win streak against conference opponents to five games. With 10 of their 11 players recording points and a defense that forced 19 turnovers, it was yet another dominating win for Waterford on their quest to repeat as state champions.
Despite dropping their second game in a row, the Lady Lancers refuse to be disheartened. According to Federal Hocking coach Jeremy Tolson, tonight was “probably the best game [Waterford] played all year.”
“They looked really really good tonight,” Tolson said. “They hit all their shots and their defense was phenomenal.”
Waterford was able to fluster the Lady Lancers with their full court press, causing countless turnovers on Federal Hocking’s side of the court. No matter where they were on the court, in-bounding the ball was a constant pain and led to easy steals and layups for the defending state champions.
Late in the game, when Waterford coach Jerry Close took out his starters, Federal Hocking senior sharpshooter Kaylli McPherson was able to find her shot and finish the night with 16 points. McPherson has had a huge season for the Lady Lancers on offense as she has provided the ability to knock down threes for a struggling offense.
“Kaylli had a nice game, if anybody finished with double digits it was her,” Tolson said. “She’s been kinda the leader of this team as far as toughness and stuff like that go.
Despite the lopsided loss, the Lady Lancers are still in a great position to have a successful season. Although they have lost their last two games, Federal Hocking still sits at fifth place in the TVC-Hocking with a 7-9 record.
After starting the season with a 1-6 record, the Lady Lancers won six of their next seven to get back to a .500 record. After turning their season around, Federal Hocking loss back to back against second place Eastern and top seeded Waterford.
Now that their toughest two game sequence of the season is behind them, Tolson and his team is ready to get back to their winning ways.
“We got by those two, now we have six games left,” Tolson said. “We’re fine, I don’t see any problems with us picking it right back up and getting back to where we were. I really feel like we can finish this season 13-9, that’s our goal.”