Fort Scott girls roll to another victory

Fort Scott's Megan McDermed goes in for a layup during the second half of play Friday night at the FSHS gymnasium. McDermed scored 14 points for the Tigers to aid them to a 53-33 Homecoming victory over Independence. --Kenny Felt/Captured Images

FORT SCOTT, Kan. -- Fort Scott High School's girls second-quarter defense propelled the Tigers to a 53-33 Southeast Kansas League victory over Independence at the FSHS gymnasium Friday night for their second win by at least 20 points in as many nights.

The Tigers (8-3 SEK, 9-6 overall) defeated Pittsburg by 24 Thursday night. Friday, they held Independence to three points in the second quarter as the Bulldogs -- who entered the night in second place in the league but fell to fourth with the loss -- missed their first 10 field-goal attempts of the period.

"We focus so much on defense that it's great to see the girls have success," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said. "The offense sometimes comes and goes but if the defense is solid, you'll be competitive every night. And you defense can make for a good offense because you're going to get steals and transition points."

Fort Scott never trailed, going up 7-2 early on after Jolee Sharp scored five straight points. It was a 14-8 lead at the end of the period.

Independence scored a free throw early in the second period, then watched Fort Scott score the next 12 in a row. Several of those points were generated by the defense on steals. Megan McDermed scored 12 of her 14 points in the period, including the last eight of that run and a buzzer-beating jumper that made it 28-11 at the break.

The Bulldogs made just 1 of 11 field-goal attempts in the period and that field goal came with less than 25 seconds remaining.

Independence caught up a bit to start the third quarter, going on a 7-2 run. The Tigers responded with eight straight points. Sharp hit a jumper, Courtney Carpenter followed up her own miss and Kori Allen hit a 3-point shot from the right side to make it 38-18 with 2:14 remaining.

There wasn't any suspense left after that as the lead never shrunk to less than 16 points ever again. It was 42-24 after three.

There wasn't really anything Armstrong could quibble about as the Tigers had a second straight strong outing bouncing back from a Tuesday loss to SEK leader Labette County.

"This was one of those games when it was a little bit harder to find stuff we needed to talk about," Armstrong said. "The girls did a solid job all the way around."

Sharp led the Tigers with 20 points, four assists and four steals and tied with Mallory Shelton with nine rebounds. After the game, it was announced that she has been nominated for a place on the McDonalds' All-American Team, an honor bestowed on only 22 other players from the state of Kansas.

"She'd prefer not to be out there (getting attention)," Armstrong said of Sharp. "She would rather just be who she is. That's what makes it even more special because she doesn't have an ego or a bone in her body that makes her think she's better than someone else. Sometimes, I have to get on her for being too unselfish."

Talor Smith and Kelby McGrath each had 11 points for Independence, which was held to 29-percent field-goal shooting on 13 of 45. The Tigers made 18 of 44 field-goal tries for 41 percent.

Sammi Therwhanger had eight boards for the Tigers while McDermed brought down seven, leading Fort Scott to a 41-32 rebounding advantage,

The Tigers will host Columbus at 6 p.m., Tuesday, in their third consecutive home league game.

JUNIOR VARSITY -- The Tigers prevailed in the JV contest, 35-31. Allen and Morgan Tourtillott each scored seven points.

NOTES -- Sharp, who is the Tigers' all-time leading scorer, needs only 36 points to reach 1,000 for her career. It is likely she would break that barrier next Friday at Chanute.