Hardwood Heroes Sports
Lady Lancers Bounce Back in Big Win Against Belpre
By: Alex Porter
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STEWART, Ohio– The Federal Hocking Lady Lancers have had a back and forth season, with some big wins and tough losses to add to their 7-9 record.
“We’re very young,” Lady Lancers head coach Jeremy Tolson said. “With young teams you’re going to have inconsistencies. […] We can compete with almost every team and we have competed with every team.”
Compete is the word to use when describing the Lady Lancers “grind it out” win against the Belpre Lady Eagles on Thursday, 55-38 in favor of Federal Hocking.
The Lady Lancers jumped out to an early lead in the first half and never allowed Belpre to have a chance to win the game. Large contributors to the Lady Lancers’ offensive consistency can be attributed to Paige Tolson and the three-point barrage from Kylie Tabler in the second half.
Tolson gave the offense a boost right from the tip, as she finished with 17 points at the end of the first half. Tolson finished the game with 26 points. The importance of the star guard in the second half was the ability to hit big free throws down the stretch.
“At the end of the game I thought I had a weapon in Paige to use,” Jeremy Tolson said. “We hit our free throws when it counted.”
Although Paige Tolson may draw a lot of offensive attention when she’s on the court, fellow Junior Kylie Tabler can be just as much of a deadly weapon. Tabler can be a three-point sniper for the Lady Lancers, and Thursday night, she did what she does best.
Heading into the second half, Tabler didn’t have any points, but then the switch was flipped. She finished with 12 points, all of which were from downtown. The three-point scoring allowed the Lady Lancers to maintain a manageable lead over Belpre, and they never looked back.
Despite wonderful performances from the whole Lady Lancer squad, one big loss on the night was an injury to forward Emma Beha. Beha was scrapping for a loose ball at the end of the third quarter and appeared to injure her right elbow. It is unclear as to what the injury is and if Beha will have to miss any time.
“It surprised me a bit because she’s a big part of what we’re trying to accomplish,” Jeremy Tolson said. “I was proud of the kids that stepped up off the bench.”
As Tolson and the Lady Lancers had several players step up heading into the fourth quarter, the game was over with about three minutes left to go in the game. Federal Hocking implemented a play to stall the clock and not allow the Lady Eagles to score the ball for the rest of the game.
Just like that, the Lady Lancers improved to 7-9 on the season heading into their matchup at Wahama this Saturday. They’re looking for their second win in a row, and have all the tools to make that happen.