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Greyhounds win third straight game
A week ago, Fort Scott Community College's women were drubbed on the road by Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa, 83-54. Wednesday night at Arnold Arena, the Greyhounds paid back the Mavericks in kind by routing them, 81-56.
What accounted for the difference? Focus, apparently, based on the answer from Fort Scott head coach Stasha Richards.
"Never play a game the day before Thanksgiving," Richards said. "I learned my lesson the hard way.
"I think everybody was looking ahead past that game. We didn't come out and execute or play hard. We just went through the motions and it showed."
The Greyhounds (6-4) went on to win games Friday and Saturday at the Pratt Classic. Wednesday's game was just their second home game of the season and their last one until January 3.
The Mavericks (3-12), perhaps boosted a bit by their earlier win, stuck with the 'Hounds for the game's first 9 1/2 minutes, tying it at 12-12 on a three-point goal by Bethany McBride.
Fort Scott went on a 14-4 run right after that, started with three consecutive layups from sophomore Leondra Doomes-Stephens, who had just 12 points in the first meeting with NOCT but scored 26 Wednesday night.
A later 11-2 run made it a 42-24 game with two minutes left in the half. The Mavericks scored six if the last eight of the half to get within 44-30.
The Greyhounds scored eight of the first 11 of the second half with Doomes-Stephens scoring the last four of that run.
The teams played evenly for a while. Then Uniontown High School graduate Kylie Shepard hit a three-pointer and took a steal in for a layup to spark a 9-2 run. Doomes-Stephens scored the last four to make it 72-45 with 10:10 remaining.
NOCT scored the next nine but Korie Hargus' free throws at the end of the run with exactly six minutes to go were the last points the Mavericks scored in the game.
"We're a young team and right now, we're up and down," Richards says. "We've played a really tough schedule, probably one of the toughest in conference. We went to Texas and played San Jacinto and Blinn. Blinn lost three games last year. Three Rivers is in the top 25 now and that's a rough schedule for a group, basically, of all freshmen. So we've taken some bumps and bruises. We're a good basketball team but we're still learning and growing as a young basketball team."
Kelly finished with 20 points for the Greyhounds while Shepard added 14. Doomes-Stephens connected on 12 of 22 field-goal attempts, Kelly on 10 of 18 and Shepard on five of eight.
Joy Hathaway, who didn't play in the game at Tonkawa, led Fort Scott with 10 rebounds and Parsons grad Tashanda Jackson had eight. Doomes-Stephens dished six assists and had seven steals.
Liberty Payne led NOCT with 21 points and Lauren Campo added 10.
Fort Scott shot 42 percent from the field, making 33 of 79 field-goal tries, while outrebounding NOCT, 51-39. The Mavericks shot 33 percent from the floor on 21 of 63.
The 'Hounds had 15 steals and dished 17 assists as a team.
NORTHERN OKLAHOMA-TONKAWA: Upshaw 0-0 0-0 0, Russell 0-0 0-0 0, Payne 9-19 2-4 21, Kunschick 0-3 0-0 0, Hill 1-3 0-0 2, McBride 2-6 0-0 5, Roush 1-7 0-0 2, Campo 3-11 4-6 10, Combs 0-0 0-0 0, Hargus 2-6 4-4 9, Rey 3-8 0-0 7, Sheik 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21-63 10-14 56.
FORT SCOTT: Doomes-Stephens 12-22 1-1 26, Shepard 5-8 0-2 14, Bloodworth 0-3 0-0 0, Duplechin 0-4 4-4 4, Hampton 0-6 0-0 0, Smith 1-2 0-0 2, Kelly 10-18 0-0 20, Hathaway 0-2 1-2 1, Okoronkwo 1-4 1-1 3, Jackson 1-3 1-2 3, Fernandes 3-5 2-2 8, Ellis 0-2 0- 00. TOTALS: 33-79 10-14 81.
Halftime: Fort Scott, 44-30.
Three-point field goals: NOCT 4-24 (Hargus 1-1, Rey 1-3, McBride 1-4, Payne 1-6, Hill 0-1, Campo 0-2, Kunschik 0-3, Roush 0-4), Fort Scott 5-20 (Shepard 4-7, Doomes-Stephens 1-6, Bloodworth 0-1, Duplechin 0-2, Hampton 0-4).
Total fouls: NOCT 18, Fort Scott 13. Fouled out: none. Technical fouls: none.
Rebounds: NOCT 39 (Payne 7), Fort Scott 51 (Hathaway 10) Assists: NOCT 9 (Campo 3), Fort Scott 17 (Doomes-Stephens 6). Turnovers: NOCT 26, Fort Scott 20. Steals: NOCT 8 (Hargus 3), Fort Scott 15 (Doomes-Stephens 7). Blocked shots: NOCT 4 (four with 1 each), Fort Scott 1 (Ellis).