Fort Scott Tribune: High School Sports: Sharp becomes all-time leading scorer in rout (01/19/10)

Fort Scott High School senior Jolee Sharp became Fort Scott High School's all-time girls' basketball scoring leader in a 66-38 victory over Parsons Monday night at the FSHS gymnasium. Sharp scored 28 points in the game and has 879 career points. Dennie Young held the old record of 870 points, which she scored from 1988-92.(Tribune file photo)
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Senior Jolee Sharp became the all-time leading scorer in the history of Fort Scott High School's girls' basketball program Monday night as a stickback of a teammate's miss with 2:39 left in the third period gave her her 870th and 871st points as a Tiger.

The basket actually sparked a personal 6-0 run and was part of a 28-point, 8-rebound, 7-steal effort that helped Fort Scott bounce back from Friday's lackluster performance in a loss to Girard to rout Southeast Kansas League foe Parsons, 66-38, at the FSHS gymnasium.

"I'm real proud of her," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said of Sharp. "She plays hard at both ends and, even off the court, you couldn't ask for a better girl.

"Dennie had the record for a long time, almost 20 years. Who knows how long it will last again. We have quite a few more games."

The only defense against Sharp, who made 12 of 17 shots from the field, was Armstrong himself. He called a time out while she was on a breakaway in the fourth quarter because he wanted to get the starters out and get the bench some more playing time before the 30-point running-clock rule came into play.

The Tigers (5-2 SEK, 6-5 overall) were looking for a better performance after a disappointing 22-point loss to Girard, the No. 5-ranked team in Class 4A according to the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association. They got what they needed not only from Sharp, but from everybody.

The Tigers shot 55 percent from the floor, making 26 of 47 field-goal attempts. They outrebounded Parsons, 31-23. They held the Vikings (3-4, 3-5) to 9-of-26 shooting in the first half.

Megan McDermed went 9 of 16 from the floor and contributed 22 points, 11 of which came in the first quarter.

"The score is deceiving because Parsons is a pretty solid team," Armstrong said. "I had only one thing up the board today -- I usually have 80 things -- and it just said, 'Guided intensity.' And the girls played within themselves, which was what we did against Chanute. And we had some intensity, which is what we have to have every game."

The Tigers made five of their fist six shots from the field as they scored the games' first 9 points. Parsons missed its first 5 shots from the field.

The lead was 16-3 with 2:26 remaining and 20-5 with 1:17 to go before Parsons scored the last 4 of the period. The Tigers made 9 of 11 fielders in the quarter.

Unlike the struggles Friday night, the Tigers just seemed to have a flow going on offense and defense. The press led to turnovers, which in turn lead to layups.

"At one point, there was no point in calling a defense or an offense because it was just, 'go'," Armstrong said.

The lead continued to grow in the second period, getting up to 35-14 when McDermed scored consecutive hoops. The halftime margin was 40-20.

Sharp, at that point, needed only 6 points to break the record. Two free throws with 7:24 to go brought her within 4. A layup with 5:43 remaining brought it down to 2.

Then Sharp went on her personal run. She scored those points so quickly -- making the lead 50-28 -- that the announcement that she had broken the record had to be held off until a break in play later in the period.

Fort Scott was up 53-36 when the final stanza started and the starters scored the first 11 points of the period before Armstrong called the Sharp-stopping time out. Kori Allen extended Fort Scott's scoring run to 13-0, which made the score 66-36 and kicked in the mercy rule.

"Overall as a group, we had good rebounds from Mallory (Shelton) and I thought we played good defense," Armstrong said. "We held them below 40 and anytime you're scoring a lot, sometimes it's hard to play defense because you're not focused on that. But the girls maintained their focus on defense, along with scoring tonight."

Taylor Kemp was the only Viking in double figures as she finished with 12 points.

The Tigers are idle until Jan. 26, when they will travel to Coffeyville to take on the Golden Tornado, who will play in their own tournament beginning Thursday.

JUNIOR VARSITY -- Parsons won the JV contest, 26-23. Shelton scored 8 points for the Tigers.

PARSONS: Cares 1-4 0-0 2, S.Kemp 4-10 0-3 8, T.Kemp 5-8 2-4 12, Mosier 3-10 0-1 6, Woodworth 1-3 0-0 2, Forbes 3-8 0-0 6, Getz 1-3 0-0 2. TOTALS: 18-46 2-8 38.

FORT SCOTT: Sharp 12-17 3-5 28, Therwahnger 1-1 2-4 4, Carpenter 0-1 0-0 0, Tourtillott 0-0 0-0 0, Shelton 2-5 0-0 4, Harper 0-0 1-2 1, Allen 1-4 0-0 2, McDermed 9-16 3-4 22, Campbell 1-3 3-4 5, Karleskint 0-0 0-2 0. TOTALS: 26-47 12-21 66.

Parsons.............. 9 11 16 2 -- 38

Fort Scott.......... 23 17 13 13 -- 66

Three-point field goals: Parsons 0-1 (Cares 0-1), Fort Scott 2-3 (Sharp 1-1, McDermed 1-2).

Total fouls: Parsons 14, Fort Scott 12. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls; None.

Rebounds: Parsons 23 (T.Kemp 6), Fort Scott 31 (Sharp 8). Assists: Parsons 6 (Cares 2), Fort Scott 8 (Sharp 2, McDermed 2). Turnovers: Parsons 18, Fort Scott 16. Steals: Parsons 10 (S.Kemp 3), Fort Scott 12 (Sharp 7). Blocked shots: Pasons 1 (Woodworth), Fort Scott 3 (Sharp, Carpenter, Shelton).