Tiger girls roll in second half as Sharp nears 1,000-point mark

Senior Jolee Sharp scored 28 points Tuesday night and Fort Scott High School's all-time leading girls' scorer edged closer to becoming the first to reach the 1,000-point mark as the Tigers defeated Columbus in Southeast Kansas League play, 56-28, at the FSHS gymnasium.

Sharp entered the game needing 36 points to reach 1,000. At the pace she was going, Sharp could have possibly reached the barrier in this game, but there was no reason to show up the Titans just to get that done one game early.

"I talked to the assistant coaches and found out where she was," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said. "I would love for that to happen at home. The way she was playing there, she could have got 8 in about two minutes. But it's tough and the girls and Jo know it. (The SEK) is a community of teams and I don't want to send the wrong message to a team. Jo's going to get it. I didn't expect her to be able to get all 36 in one night, although she has had 30 before. We'll hopefully have a great crowd at Chanute and the next time we have a home game, hopefully the crowd will celebrate."

Just to put in perspective how rare the 1,000-point achievement is, only two boys have reached that mark in a Fort Scott uniform. Austin Boots scored 1,173 points from 2002-2005 and Stephen Gentry scored 1,060 from 1998-2001. In fact, Sharp is only the seventh Fort Scott basketball player of either gender to surpass 900 points.

But Columbus wasn't interested in attending a coronation of sorts. The Titans were playing tough early on before Sharp hit a 3-point shot midway through the first quarter to break a 4-4 tie. Courtney Carpenter followed with a triple of her own and Jenna Harper scored a transition layup to give the Tigers (9-3 SEK, 10-6 overall) a 12-4 lead.

It was 16-8 after one period after Sharp stuck back her own missed shot at the buzzer. The lead grew to 22-10 after Heather Karleskint's transiton basket with 3:42 remaining in the half.

"They've been doing a good job of coming out early in the ball game and setting the tone of the ball game," Armstrong said of his team.

Columbus (4-8, 6-10) regrouped and managed to stay within 25-17 at the half after scoring 4 straight points in the final 32 seconds. That wasn't what Armstrong wanted to see, however.

"My girls are tough as nails; they can take a chewing a little bit at halftime," Armstrong said. "They really got after it in the third. It was one of our best quarters of the year."

At the very least, the Tigers started out with their best four minutes as they scored 12 straight points to make it 37-17 with 4:25 remaining. During that run, the Fort Scott defense allowed Columbus just one field-goal attempt.

Megan McDermed converted a 3-point play in the middle of the run to make it 33-17. She then stole the inbound pass and drew a foul, making both free throws. Sammi Therwhanger added the last 2 points after another Columbus turnover.

Fort Scott scored the last 4 points of the third to extend the lead to 43-21.

An 8-0 run in the middle of the fourth, during which Sharp scored 6 points, made it 53-25 with 3:13 to go. This was when Armstrong made the decision to take Sharp out of the game.

Sharp made 12 of 18 shots from the field and also had 12 rebounds and 5 steals. McDermed finished with 11 points. Carpenter dished 5 assists and Therwhanger blocked 2 shots.

Jessica Andrews, Columbus 6' 2" post, led the Titans with 12 points and blocked 4 shots. But the Titans made only 4 of 17 field-goal attempts in the second half while the Tigers made 13 of 22.

Overall, Fort Scott shot 46 percent from the field on 22 of 48 and Columbus shot 35 percent on 12 of 34.

The Tigers outrebounded the Titans, 31-19, and also committed only 13 turnovers compared to Columbus' 21.

The Tigers will travel to Chanute Friday night for another Southeast Kansas League battle. The Blue Comets (7-4, 9-6), picked to win the SEK in the preseason, have been upset victims twice in their last three games and fallen into fourth place. They lost to sixth-place Parsons Friday night, 34-33, beat last-place Coffeyville Saturday in a make-up game, 59-19, and lost to eighth-place Iola, 37-35, Tuesday night on the road.

The Tigers beat Chanute by 20 points, 55-35, at the FSHS gym on January 5.

JUNIOR VARSITY -- Fort Scott's JV defeated Columbus, 47-34, as Morgan Tourtillott scored 14 points and Kori Allen added 13.

COLUMBUS: R.Soper 0-1 0-0 0, Overman 1-5 0-0 2, Crain 1-4 0-1 2, Fletcher 2-3 0-0 4, Anderson 5-11 2-2 12, Vanatta 1-5 1-2 3, Brillesbach 1-2 0-0 2, Hamilton 1-1 1-4 Ivey 0-0 0-0 0, Thomas 0-1 0-0 0, M.Soper 0-1 0-0 0. TOTALS: 12-34 4-11 28.

FORT SCOTT: Sharp 12-18 2-2 28, Therwhanger 2-5 0-0 4, Carpenter 1-4 0-0 3, Tourtillott 0-0 0-0 0, Shelton 1-2 1-3 3, Harper 2-3 1-2 5, Allen 0-3 0-0 0, McDermed 3-12 5-5 11, Campbell 0-0 0-0 0, Karleskint 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 22-48 9-12 56.

Three-point field goals: Columbus 0-6 (Overman 0-1, M.Soper 0-1, Crain 0-2, Vanatta 0-2), Fort Scott 3-5 (Sharp 2-3, Carpenter 1-1, McDermed 0-1).

Total fouls: Columbus 14, Fort Scott 11. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None.

Rebounds: Columbus 19 (3 with 4 each), Fort Scott 31 (Sharp 12). Assists: Columbus 6 (6 with 1 each), Fort Scott 11 (Carpenter 5). Turnovers: Columbus 21, Fort Scott 13. Steals: Columbus 6 (Overman 2, Crain 2), Fort Scott 13 (Sharp 5). Blocked shots: Columbus 6 (Anderson 4), Fort Scott 2 (Therwhanger 2).