MORGANTOWN — University High freshman Hannah Stemple came off the bench Monday night to lead the Hawks past Bridgeport 69-38.
Stemple scored 18 on a night when nine different UHS players scored. Bridgeport (7-10) was led by Gabby Reed, who led all scorers with 19 points.
UHS (7-7) found themselves down 7-3 early, as the Indians came out hot to start the game. The Hawks were outrebounding the Indians, but couldn’t seem to find the bottom of the net. That was until Stemple got into the game and scored seven quick points, leading her team on a 15-4 run to end the first with a 16-11 lead.
“She has been big all year for us,” head coach Nick Lusk said of Stemple. “She has come off the bench and started for us also when we’ve been out of rotation with players leaving and COVID and things.”
The second quarter would rollover from the first, as UHS found themselves turning defense into offense and scoring in transition. Combine that with Bridgeport struggling against the Hawks’ zone defense.
“Defense and rebounding are what we have stressed all year and it’s starting to pay off for us,” Lusk said.
The downfall for UHS this year has been the second half. The Hawks play well in the first two quarters and then have let games slip away.
This was not the case Monday night.
UHS played well out of the locker room on both sides of the ball, scoring the first six point on their way to a 12-2 run. Ella Simpson scored nine of her 11 total points in the quarter and the Hawks would grow their lead to 54-32.
“It was a lot of weight of the shoulders to put four good quarters together,” Lusk said. “And we stress to them in the huddle, third quarter ends, we still have eight more minutes, lets finish this thing.”
More defense led to offense in the fourth and UHS slowed tempo down to kill clock and secure their seventh win of the season.
UHS will travel to Wheeling Park at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, before returning home to host Fairmont Senior on Thursday.
University (7-7)
Hannah Stemple 12 0-0 18 Ella Simpson 9 3-3 11 Emily Sharkey 9 1-3 10 Aza Boateng 11 1-2 7 Lyla Byers 3 2-2 7 Eden Gibson 6 0-0 6 Jereiah Martin 4 0-0 4 Julia Maisel 3 1-2 4 Ashlynn Weaver 4 0-0 2
Bridgeport (7-10)
Gabby Reep 21 5-6 19 Emily Anderson 9 0-1 8 Maddy Amick 5 0-0 3 Myleigh Smell 2 0-0 3 Bailey Tomes 3 0-0 2 Eowyn Knapp 3 0-0 2 Kloey Martinez 2 0-0 2
UNIVERSITY 16 20 18 15 – 69
BRIDGEPORT 11 15 6 6 – 38
3-pointers: University – 5 (Stemple 2, Sharkey 1, Byers 1, Maisel 1); Bridgeport – 4 (Reep 2, Amick 1, Smell 1)
Trinity 75, Moorefield 52
MOOREFIELD — Jenna Barnett scored 21 points and a big second half led Trinity to the victory.
The Warriors (10-6) trailed 31-29 at halftime.
Ella Rose Lynch added 15 points for Trinity and went 4 for 4 from 3-point range in the second half. Sucora Brown finished with 13 for Trinity.
Trinity coach Mike Baldy said he still saw room for improvement on defense.
“We have to get better at moving our feet on defense,” he said.
