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Greyhounds just miss Ravens' target
Coffeyville's women are going to have to get used to being on top of the Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division.
Red Raven head coach Emily Washburn has only one sophomore who knows the pressure of being at or near the top of the conference race and that may have shown somewhat as it took a late spurt for Coffeyville to escape an upset bid by Fort Scott Community College, 87-79, at Arnold Arena Saturday afternoon.
"We moved up to the top of the conference and when you're there, the target goes on your back," Washburn said. "(Teams are) going to be working their hardest to beat you because that's a huge win for them."
The Ravens (9-1, in the East, 15-7 overall) led 47-35 at halftime. But Fort Scott (3-7, 10-9) stormed out of the locker room and hit seven of its first 10 shots from the field during a rally that saw them get within 54-52 with 15 minutes to go.
"I told the kids to be more aggressive," Fort Scott's first-year head coach, Stasha Richards, said. "I thought we were being passive on offense (in the first half). We were setting back and waiting for someone else to do it. But I told them, 'You sophomores haven't beaten Coffeyville since you've been here. Just go out and be aggressive. Just play hard, try to take it to the basket.' And they came out and were very aggressive and that was the difference early in the second half."
Coffeyville came out of the locker room as cold as the Greyhounds were hot, hitting on only two of its first 12 shots. Although Cheryl Scott made it 57-52 with a three-point shot with 13:49 to go, Fort Scott tied it less than two minutes later when Miranda Chaney hit a three of her own.
Chaney, whose role on offense is to shoot whenever she's open, especially when she's behind the three-point line, put up just two shots, missing both, in the first half. But she nailed three three pointers during Fort Scott's half-opening rally.
"Miranda is a kid we could possibly bring back because she's only had a year of eligibility playing basketball" Richards said. "She can shoot the ball; it's (about) her confidence. She wants to get everybody else involved first. But when she's wide open, she has to take the wide shot to open up our inside game or else we don't have a perimeter game. I thought she did a great job. I thought everyone wanted this victory and we played as a team."
Chaney is a sophomore who played softball for FSCC last season. But this is her first season of basketball, making her a freshmen in terms of eligibility for this sport.
The 'Hounds finally cooled off but the lead changed hands several times with Fort Scott going ahead for the last time, 70-69, on a transition layup by Leondra Doomes-Stephens with 4:49 remaining.
Scott hit a three-point shot, then scored three the old-fashioned way to put the Ravens back in front for good with about four minutes to go. Taja Green added another three moments later to make it 78-71.
"Their big kids (Scott and Green) stepped out and hit two big threes," Richards said. "That was crucial right there. They hadn't taken those shots all game. They made plays, shot those big threes. We didn't fall apart but that was devastating to our big kids and we just kind of fell behind after that."
The Greyhounds, with only seven players on their roster -- one of those a walk-on who has only been with the team for two weeks -- eventually wore down and the Ravens were able to pull away. The difference came on the boards as it seemed Coffeyville managed to come down with them when Fort Scott was the one who needed them the most.
"We called time out with about for minutes left," Washburn recalled, "and I said, 'Girls, you have to do everything it takes to win the game. It's not going to be pretty; you just gotta do what it takes to win'."
Lacie Ward, Coffeyville's only sophomore, led her team with 22 points and eight assists. Six of the seven Red Raven players who scored reached double-digits with Green adding 17, Scott 14, ShiNeice Cox and Stephanie Ritcher 11 each and Tarita Gordon 10.
Doomes-Stephens scored a career-high 34 points for Fort Scott. Brittney English added 14 and Kenya Doss finished with 13.
Coffeyville shot 42 percent from the field, making 32 of 77 field-goal attempts but was just 15 of 30 at the free-throw line. Fort Scott shot 43 percent from the floor on 30 of 70 and made 13 of 22 charity tosses.
The Ravens had a 53-47 rebounding advantage with Green hauling down 13 boards.
The Greyhounds will host Highland Wednesday night at Arnold Arena. The Jayhawk Conference battle tips off at 5 p.m.
NOTES -- The Greyhounds went with throwback uniforms Saturday, if you can call last year's gear "throwbacks." An unfortunate laundry incident caused this year's new uniforms to turn pink, so the 'Hounds broke out the Carmello Anthony-era Syracuse-inspired uniforms. Three Greyhounds had to change numbers: Bowles went back to the No. 42 she wore last season from No. 15, Chaney changed from No. 10 to No. 12, and Janelle Wittenborn went from No. 1 to No. 4. The road numbers might remain the same as they have been unless the coaches decide to go ahead and bring back the matching road uniforms. That depends on whether or not this year's gear can be salvaged….
Fort Scott blocked nine shots, three each by Doomes-Stephens, Bowles and English....
Doomes-Stephens' 34 points topped a 30-point night she had Nov. 17 against the Benedictine junior varsity at the Highland Classic.
There have been 18 games in which an individual has scored over 30 points since 1996-97. Only Doomes-Stephens and Keisha Walker, who played here from 2005-07, have had more than one such game. Walker, who now plays at Texas Tech, accomplished the feat 12 times in her FSCC career....
Highland, Wednesday's opponent, lost to No. 16-ranked Labette by just 10 points, 57-47, Saturday. The Greyhounds defeated the Scotties, 61-52, on Jan. 9 at Highland's Allen Field House.
The Scotties will go into Wednesday's game in ninth place in the East at 1-9, 9-13....
Fort Scott is tied with Allen County for the No. 6 seed out of the Eastern Division for the Region VI Tournament. The Greyhounds currently hold a tie-breaker as a result of a 61-52 win over the Red Devils on Jan. 19. FSCC is just one game behind Kansas City for No. 5 but three behind No. 4 Independence....
COFFEYILLE: Bufford 0-0 0-0 0, Lacie Ward 8-16 3-4 22, Lanie Ward 1-2 0-0 2, Gordon 5-7 0-2 10, Cox 5-9 0-2 11, Nitcher 4-11 3-6 11, Scott 5-12 1-1 14, Cooper 0-5 0-4 0, Green 4-15 8-11 17. TOTALS: 32-77 15-30 87.
FORT SCOTT: Doomes-Stephens 13-20 6-10 34, Wittenborn 0-0 0-0 0, Chaney 3-8 0-0 9, Bowles 4-10 1-3 9, Doss 5-17 2-4 13, Lawrence 0-2 0-0 0, English 5-13 4-5 14. TOTALS: 30-70 13-22 79.
Halftime: Coffeyville, 47-35.
Three-point field goals: Coffeyville 8-19 (Scott 3-5, Lacie Ward 3-8, Cox 1-3, Green 1-3), Fort Scott 6-19 (Chaney 3-7, Doomes-Stephens 2-5, Doss 1-6, Lawrence 0-1).
Total fouls: Coffeyville 18, Fort Scott 22. Fouled out: Doss.
Rebounds: Coffeyville 53 (Green 13), Fort Scott 47 (English 14, Doomes-Stephens 10, Bowles 10). Assists: Coffeyville 18 (Lacie Ward 8), Fort Scott 10 (Doomes-Stephens 3). Turnovers: Coffeyville 8, Fort Scott 14. Steals: Coffeyville 9 (Green 4), Fort Scott 6 (Doss 3). Blocked shots: Coffeyville none, Fort Scott 9 (Doomes-Stephens 3, Bowles 3, English 3).