On a Roll: Lady Tornado wins three straight
KEYSER - Since returning from their trip to Orlando, Florida, the Keyser Lady Tornado are on a roll, winning three straight.
First came a 55-35 romp of Moorefield on the road, then a 56-50 overtime victory over Fort Hill at home. It’s the third win, however, a 53-49 thriller over Hampshire, a key sectional opponent, that carries the most weight.
In this highly anticipated sectional matchup, it may have been close throughout, but Keyser basically led from pillar to post. The Lady Tornado opened the game with a 12-8 advantage in the first quarter. In the second quarter, Keyser used a 13-11 advantage to take a 25-19 lead at the half.
A 14-10 Keyser advantage in the third frame set up the Lady Tornado with a 10-point, 39-29 lead entering the final eight minutes of play. Hampshire had a huge, 20-point fourth quarter, but Keyser finished strong as well with 14 points of their own. The end result, a 53-49 Keyser victory.
“I love it. This was a big win. We challenged the girls, we told them this was a playoff game tonight. We said this is what it’s going to look like in the playoffs. I challenged them to execute, to come out and work hard, and to play defense,” Keyser coach Josh Blowe stated.
It was a victory that came with success on both sides of the ball for Keyser. The Golden Tornado were stingy on defense, and balanced on offense throughout the contest.
“For the most part we played tremendous defense all night. On offense, we moved the ball, we got a lot of good shots at the rim. I’ve very pleased with what is now back to back, ultra-team wins. I couldn’t be happier, I feel like we’re moving in the right direction,” Blowe stated.
Maddy Broadwater led the way on offense for Keyser, scoring a team-high 12 points. Next was Aly Smith with 10 points, and Averi Everline and Alexa Shoemaker with eight points each. In addition, Janiah Layton added six points, Maddie Harvey five points, and Sydney Taylor four points.
“That’s two games in a row with multiple girls having eight plus points. In the last game, we had four girls in double figures. That’s who our team is. We play defense and we’re very balanced. You can’t really key on one person, because on any night, someone else can step up. We’ve had six girls lead us in scoring this season, and we’ve only played 11 games,” Blowe detailed.
Despite the strong performance from Keyser, Hampshire just wouldn’t go away.
According to Blowe, “I did feel like we had some chances to extend the lead and we didn’t. We had a chance with about a minute left in the game to end it. But, we couldn’t get that big rebound to end the game. So, we could always be better, but we battled. We’re more and more battle tested now. That’s two games in a row, overtime against Fort Hill and it came down to the wire tonight.”
Hampshire was led offensively by Liz Pryor with 14 points, Hannah Ault with nine points, Jaden Kerns with eight points, and Izzy Blomquist with six points. In addition, Carisma Shanholtz and Kiersten added five points each, and Olivia Baxter two points.
Holding Blomquist to six points was quite an accomplishment for the Keyser defense.
“I always say this, and I’m a firm believer, you don’t shut down a great player, you just try to contain them. I thought we did a nice job. I thought Janiah (Layton) did a great job on her, and we had a lot of team help. We made everything tough. I would say that 90 percent of the shots they took were contested,” Blowe explained.
Keyser and Hampshire will again do battle in Keyser on Feb. 7. This was an important win for Keyser because it was a win within their section, and in fact, in the only sectional game played so far. Keyser next faces sectional opponent Berkeley Springs on the road on Thursday, Jan. 27. Then after that, there’s a make-up game with rival Frankfort on Saturday, Jan. 29.
“The rest of the week is big. We don’t want to look ahead to Frankfort on Saturday, because Berkeley Springs is our sectional opponent, and on Thursday, it’s at their place,” Blowe explained.
This article originally appeared on Mineral Daily News-Tribune: On a Roll: Lady Tornado wins three straight
