The Weatherford Lady Eagles basketball team finished second in the Weatherford Classic Tournament this past weekend.
The Lady Eagles beat Elgin 73-17 Thursday, beat Altus 66-7 Friday, but lost to Tuttle 45-39 in the championship game Saturday.
“As a whole, we had two blowouts our first two games,” coach Givens said. “The championship game against Tuttle, we just did not finish as a team. There are some positives we can take from Saturday. We can fix some of our mistakes such as playing better defense and rotating.”
Weatherford 73, Elgin 17
The Lady Eagles did what they do best, which is start fast. Jordan Hoffman scored the first 5 points for the Lady Eagles and were ahead 12-2 with 5:33 left in the first quarter.
Weatherford played great defense, forcing 5 turnovers. Jordan Hoffman and Meliah Brown each forced two and Hunter Bayless forced one. Bayless scored a fast-break layup on the turnover she forced. Weatherford was ahead 24-5, closing the first quarter on a 12-3 run.
Weatherford kept its run going, opening the second quarter on a 10-0 run and was ahead 34-5.
Elgin scored its first basket with a little more than 3:30 left in the second quarter, but they were trailing 40-7.
Weatherford closed the first half on a 6-2 run and they were ahead 46-9 at halftime. Addy Hoffman scored 11 points and Bayless and Jordan Hoffman each scored 10 points for the Lady Eagles.
Weatherford continued to remain in control, by forcing 3 turnovers and building a 50-point lead. The Lady Eagles scored 20 points in the third quarter and were ahead 66-16 going into the fourth quarter.
Weatherford scored 70 points as Peyton Foster scored a layup. Abbie Moses had 2 rebounds in the fourth quarter as well. The Lady Eagles won the game 73-17. Weatherford forced 13 turnovers. Addy Hoffman scored 18 points, Jordan Hoffman scored 16 points, Bayless scored 14 points and Brown scored 10 points.
“We did a good job rebounding on defense and we got out and ran the floor really well,” Givens said. “For the most part, we stayed in front of the defense and let them make mistakes and we did a great job capitalizing off their mistakes. Often times when you are playing a team you are clearly better than, you can build bad habits, which is not what we want to do. The little things make the difference and we want to keep doing the little things right.”
Weatherford 66, Altus 7
Weatherford has a 5-game streak of scoring a fast-break layup five games on a play where they win the tip and Price passes to Jordan Hoffman for an easy layup.
“That play is an old tip basketball play,” Givens said. “That is something the girls came up with and wanted to run. They like it, they keep doing it and keep scoring on it.”
Weatherford was hot and ahead 18-2 only Three minutes and 45 seconds into the game with plays like Brown, Addy Hoffman and Jordan Hoffman making 3-pointers.
The Lady Eagles kept their momentum going on both sides of the basketball and were ahead 25-3 at the end of the first quarter. Weatherford forced four turnovers and were 4-6 from beyond the arch.
Weatherford continued to defend, only allowing 2 points in the second quarter. They struggled to score early in the quarter, but picked it up on offense and were ahead 42-5 at halftime. Addy Hoffman and Brown each scored 11 points in the first half.
Weatherford opened the third quarter on a 9-2 run and the Lady Eagles w ahead 56-7 at the end of the third quarter. Weatherford went 4-4 from 3-point range in the third quarter.
The Lady Eagles continued to play defense and pitched a shutout in the fourth quarter with plays like Foster scoring a fast break layup.
The Lady Eagles won the game 66-7. Brown and Addy Hoffman each scored 11 points. Jordan Hoffman scored 10 points. Lakysia Johnson only scored 2 points for Altus and when Weatherford played Altus a few weeks ago, she scored more than half of the points for Altus. Weatherford won that game 54-38.
“We played really well defensively,” Givens said. “Lakysia only scored 3 points and she is their main scorer as she averages 29 points per game. Our game plan was to stop her from scoring and we did a great job slowing her down.”
Weatherford also forced 13 turnovers and went 10-18 from the 3-point line. Givens said they really lit it up against Altus.
“We shoot it about 35 percent each night, which is really good for a high school team,” Givens said. “We have some really good shooters and overall, we are one of the better shooting teams in the state.”
Tuttle 45, Weatherford 39
The game was low scoring early in the contest. Jordan Hoffman intercepted a pass and scored a layup, making the score 6-3 midway through the first quarter. Brown had a block for the Lady Eagles, but Weatherford trailed 11-10 at the end of the first quarter. Ashlyn Sage scored seven of those 10 points for the Lady Eagles.
Defense sparked Weatherford in the second quarter. Weatherford went on an 8-1 run in the second quarter with plays like Jordan Hoffman scoring a layup. She also hit a 3-pointer with 2 minutes left in the second quarter giving Weatherford a 21-12 advantage. The rest of the quarter was low scoring, but the Lady Eagles were ahead 23-16 at halftime.
Givens said it was important to defend and get stops. “We played good defense in the first half,” Givens said. “We pressured the ball and stopped their post. However in the second half, we did not help on the backside as much and they threw it over the top on the post to score. We definitely needed to put more pressure on the ball.”
Tuttle went on a 6-2 run to open the second half, making the score 25-23. Each team made great plays, but the Lady Eagles were ahead 29-28 with 1:33 left in the third quarter. Tuttle’s Shayla Wilson hit a layup, making the score 30-29 with 21 seconds left in the third quarter.
Tuttle was ahead 34-31 with 4:53 left in the game and Givens called a timeout.
Tuttle went on a 6-2 run, making the score 38-32 in the span of a minute and Givens called another timeout.
Tuttle’s Landry Allen scored a layup with 2:34 left in the game, making it 40-32.
With about a minute left in the game, Sage hit a 3-pointer, making it 40-35. Later, Katen Daniel made a layup, making the score 42-37.
Tuttle won the game 45-39, handing the Lady Eagles their second loss of the season. Sage scored 12 points and had 6 rebounds.
“The first half, we played tough on defense and offense,” Givens said. “We had some good looks and drove to the basket hard. In the second half, it was totally opposite. We did not finish strong and we looked tired. We did not rotate on defense and had way too many turnovers.”
Weatherford currently is 10-2 on the season. They played Chickasha Tuesday night and return to action, 6:30 p.m. Thursday at home against Cache.
“Hopefully we are ready to keep playing games,” Givens said. “We are moving past the Tuttle game and cannot think about the way we played Saturday, but we can fix our mistakes.”