MORGANTOWN – The No. 3 University High School girls’ basketball team picked up its fourth win in a row on Thursday night, defeating Steubenville 68-43 on Baker’s Ridge.
Those four wins have all come in the last week as the Hawks (10-5) played a grueling stretch of five games in seven days.
It began last Thursday, January 23, with a 66-62 loss to top-ranked Morgantown, but UHS responded with a victory over the Class AAAA defending state champions, Wheeling Park, 48-45.
The Hawks followed that with three more victories over Parkersburg South, Buckhannon-Upshur, and most recently, Steubenville.
Thursday night’s victory, the 10th of the season for head coach Nick Lusk’s club, saw the Hawks with four players scoring in double figures. Junior Brianna Fox led the way with 16 points. She was joined by Hannah Stemple (15), Whitney Cox (12), and Julia Maisel (10). Stemple added 11 rebounds and a pair of steals.
“Tonight was about staying focused and sticking to our game plan,” Lusk said. “We knew they had some talent inside, and we packed it in a bit on defense. Once we started rebounding the ball more, the game shifted in our favor. I have to give our girls credit; they’ve played well recently. They’re rebounding, playing defense, and sharing the ball well.”
The game began slow offensively for both sides, as the first field goal of the evening wasn’t scored until Steubenville scored a layup at the 5:30 mark in the first quarter.
UHS responded positively, sparked by Stemple on offense. The downfall for the Hawks in the first quarter was defensive rebounding. Steubenville shot 5 of 24 from the field in the opening quarter, but most of its baskets came from second chances after misses, and the game entered the second knotted at 11.
The second quarter began as the first had, with both teams cold on offense. Stemple broke the ice with a triple, and the Hawks began to rebound better defensively as halftime drew closer.
Cox entered the game late in the quarter and nailed a pair of three-pointers that pushed the lead to nine heading into the locker room, 29-20. She hit seven triples earlier in the week in a game against Buckhannon-Upshur.
Steubenville hits it’s first three (in ten tries) of the game to open the second half, and added three more throughout the third quarter, but the Hawks found stops when they needed and turned defense into offense.
UHS tallied 12 steals as a team and used the turnovers to get out on the break and score easy baskets, eventually doubling the halftime lead to 18, 53-35 entering the fourth. The Hawks scored 24 points in the third quarter
The Hawks outscored Steubenville 15-8 in the final frame to earn the victory on Senior Night.
UHS will travel across town on Monday to visit Morgantown for the third meeting of the year between the two teams as they battle in the semifinals of the 5A OVAC tournament. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m.
BOX SCORE
University 68, Steubenville 43
SHS 11 9 15 8 – 43
UHS 11 18 24 15 – 68
Steubenville (12-6) – McShan 7 4-7 19 Fleming 5 0-0 10 Beall 3 0-0 9 Vein 1 0-0 3 Younce 0 2-2 2
University (10-5) – Fox 6 3-5 16 Stemple 4 5-5 15 Cox 4 1-2 12 Maisel 5 0-1 10 Johnson 1 0-0 2 Simpson 4 1-2 9 Hall 1 0-0 2 Bealko 1 0-0 2
3pt goals made: University 6 (Cox 3 Stemple 2 Fox 1); Steubenville 5 (Beall 3 McShan 1 Vein 1).
