HS Girls Basketball: Wyoming East spurts past Westside

Warriors use two key spurts to pull away from the Renegades in round one of the Wyoming County rivalry

New Richmond - Wyoming East and Westside entered Thursday's county showdown with a point to prove.

The Warriors wanted to maintain their dominance over the rivalry, while the Renegades aimed to prove they had closed the gap between the two programs.

Oddly enough, both teams accomplished those goals in front of a packed and raucous crowd.

Filed with high emotion, high energy, aggressive play and 50-plus fouls, Wyoming East used a couple of key spurts to pull away in a 58-41 win.

Wyoming East head coach Ryan Davidson discussed the win for his ball club.

With the game tied 9-9 after the first quarter, the home team made the first move to take a lead it never relinquished.

Coley Tolliver scored on an in-bound play ahead of a deuce from Abi Baker for a 13-9 lead.

Eva Munroe answered for the visitors with a 3-pointer, but for the next three minutes the game went into a scoring drought.

A pair of free throws by the Warriors, along with a coast-to-coast drive and old school 3-point play from Baker gave East an 18-12 lead.

Kaylin Matney scored on a runner for Westside, but outside of a made free throw, that was the final scoring for the Renegades in the half.

The Warriors tacked on eight more points, four each from Kyndal Lusk and Rylee Brown for a 26-15 lead at the break.

Brown added to the deficit with a 3-ball to open the second half, but when Westside ripped off six straight points, Wyoming East needed a timeout.

Regan Bower then restored order for the Warriors with a jumper which was followed by crucial long ball from Tolliver for a 34-21 advantage.

When the third quarter horn sounds, Westside trailed 41-32, but could have easily been much closer.

While both teams struggled overall to make free-throws, the Renegades were a mere 7-for-16 from the charity stripe in the third quarter alone.

Wyoming East basically put the game to bed with a 5-0 run to open the final stanza.

The lead went to 18 midway through the quarter on a triple from Bower and two charity tosses from Lusk.

Baker led all scorers with 17 points (six rebounds, five steals) for the Warriors, followed by Brown with 12 and Lusk with 10. Tolliver had 10 rebounds and Bower had seven.

Karsyn Paynter paced the Renegades with 13 points and 13 rebounds, while Sarah Lilly added seven points and grabbed 18 rebounds..

W: 9 6 17 9 - 41

WE: 9 17 15 17 - 58

Westside head coach Jamie Lusk talked about his team's performance.