Tiger girls roll by Labette County, 63-39

Fort Scott's Ashley Cook beats a Labette County defender to the basket during the first quarter of play at the FSHS gymnasium Friday night. Cook scored 17 points for the Tigers in a 63-39 Southeast Kansas League victory. (Kenny Felt/Special to the Tribune)

Fort Scott High School's girls got off to a strong start in Southeast Kansas League play Friday night as they rolled by Labette County, 63-39, at the FSHS gymnasium.

The 63 points were the most scored by a Tiger team since a 70-25 victory over Coffeyville on Jan, 26, 2010.

Fort Scott (1-0 SEK, 2-1 overall) jumped out to an 11-0 lead with 2:38 remaining in the first quarter with Maddi Allen scoring 6 of those points. LCHS (0-1, 0-2), playing for the second time in as many nights, got within 13-8 by the end of the period but then scored only 3 points in the second quarter as they fell behind, 33-11.

It was a balanced effort in the half as the Tigers' who are normally thought as the top scorers, senior Katren Rienbolt and sophomore Ashley Cook, struggled with their shot early on. Rienbolt also had to leave the game early in the first quarter as she picked up two quick fouls.

That meant play from others was needed such as Allen's first-quarter outburst, a 3-point play by Jillian Lattimer early in the second, a 3-point shot by Ericah Shoemaker later in the quarter and a a couple of baskets and an assist from Elisha Hasenplaugh during a half-ending 13-0 run.

"Our outside shots weren't falling real well and our girls were able to adjust and start looking to attack," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said.

Hasenplaugh started the half-ending run and Shoemaker followed with her 3-pointer. Then Hasenplaugh scored again off an assist by Abby Denton. Allen stuck back a teammate's miss with 1:56 to go. Cook hit a 15-footer with 35 seconds remaining and took a pass from Hasenplaugh and hit a jumper from the free-throw line with 12 seconds to go.

The lead was as large as 45-18 with 4:37 remaining in the third after Cook scored on a give-and-go play with Hasenplaugh. Then Labette County scored the next 9 points during the only real lull of the evening.

The teams exchanged free throws at the end of the quarter but Fort Scott was able to maintain a 50-32 lead.

The Tigers scored the first 7 points of the fourth quarter with Rienbolt's 3-pointer from the right wing making it 57-32 with 5:03 remaining.

Despite their issues, Cook finished with 17 points to lead the Tigers and Rienbolt added 15. Six of the other eight Tigers who played scored at least 2 points.

"Other than that third quarter, if we're holding a great team like Labette under 10 a quarter, that means they're going to score less than 40," Armstrong said. "And a team like what we have, it's going to be tough for people to hold us under 40. We have a lot of weapons. You could see that when Kat got in foul trouble and Ashley wasn't hitting a lot of outside shots -- and they were both out of the ball game at one time -- we're still scoring."

Aubri Kimbrough led Labette County with 12 points and Erica Gartner followed with 11.

Lawrence led Fort Scott with 7 rebounds as the Tigers held a 36-25 advantage on the boards. Hasenplaugh handed out 3 of the team's 11 assists and Cook had 4 steals.

JUNIOR VARSITY --Labette County took the JV contest, 50-24. Emily Hale and Bailie Brown scored 6 points each for the Tigers.