St. Martin girls hand West Harrison first loss

ST. MARTIN -- Ameshya Williams won the battle inside, scoring 30 points for the Hurricanes, but a lack of support from her teammates allowed St. Martin to easily outpace West Harrison and hand the Hurricanes their first loss in seven games.

While Vinsha Hatcher, six points, and Amari Graves, five points, were the only other Hurricanes to score, West Harrison coach Otis Gates said the primary issues were turnovers and missed free throws.

"We have some young guards who are growing up," Gates said. "We need good guard play to be successful."

While Williams was carrying West Harrison, St. Martin responded behind the play of Deona Morgan and Savannah Jones.

"Deona played an entire game tonight," said St. Martin coach Gina Bell. "She played well on both offense and defense."

Morgan paced St. Martin with 28 points and added seven steals on defence. Jones recorded a double-double in support with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Daphane White came into the game averaging a double-double for the Yellow Jackets (11-1), just missing the mark against the Hurricanes with eight points and 12 rebounds.

"We've been playing very well," Bell said, saying her team received a wake-up call from the loss to Murrah. "We thought we were better than what we were. We've played much better since the loss."

In addition to her 30 points, Williams added 12 rebounds and four blocks.

ST. MARTIN 68, WEST HARRISON 45: With his team holding a seemingly solid nine-point lead with four minutes left in the game, St. Martin coach  Charlie Pavlus recognized his team had been in the same situation against West Harrison last year and lost.

The Hurricanes also managed to beat the Yellow Jackets (10-0) on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, giving West Harrison wins in the last two meetings.

So, with his team up by nine, Palvus called a time out to remind his team of what happened last year.

"We wanted to make sure (a late game collapse) didn't happen," he said.

Led by Daetren Bivens, the Yellow Jackets responded. Bivens came out to the time out with two quick lay-ups and later added a 3-pointer as St. Martin closed the game with a 19-5 run to beat the Hurricanes 68-45 in boys high school basketball Tuesday.

Behind Bivens and Jalen Lett, St. Martin started the game on a hot streak, jumping out to a 12-1 lead. However, West Harrison responded behind Deanthony Bowie, who hit four shots in the first half, and steadily cut into the Yellow Jackets lead. Bowie connected on a 3-pointer just before the first half buzzer, leaving St. Martin with just a five point lead, 30-25, at the half.

It would be as close as West Harrison would get.

While Quieran Gray kept the Hurricanes close with seven points, including a 3-pointer, over the third quarter and first half of the fourth quarter, 3-pointers from Jonte Moultrie and Stacee St. Julian combined with six points from Jalen Lett saw the Yellow Jackets open a double-digit lead before Gray's bucket at the 4:33 mark cut the Jackets' lead to nine, 49-40.

Pavlus said the Yellow Jackets did a poor job containing Bowie in the first half, which led to the Hurricanes run to close the score to a St. Martin five-point advantage. However, in the second half, he said the Yellow Jackets did a much better job on Bowie, whose 16 points came entirely in the first half.

"We have a bunch of seniors on this team," Pavlus said. "You don't go into halftime and scream at them. At the half we challenged them to stop (the Hurricanes)."

St. Julian scored the final four points of the game, both off steals, to lead St. Martin with 18 points. He also had five steals in the game and deflected eight passes. Lett finished with 16 points and deflected 10 Hurricane passes. Bevins had a pair 3-pointers in the first quarter to spark the opening St. Martin run and finished with 15 points.

Bowie was the only Hurricane in double figures with 16 points. Gabe Barber was second on the Hurricanes scoring charts with eight points.

This story was originally published December 8, 2015 at 9:52 PM with the headline "St. Martin girls hand West Harrison first loss ."