Peyton Ilderton scored 15 points to lead Class AAA No. 3 Logan past AAA No. 10 Winfield 44-34 in girls basketball action Saturday afternoon at Willie Akers Arena.
Ilderton made just three field goals but was 9-of-13 from the free-throw line to help the Lady Wildcats snap a two-game losing streak.
Ilderton was 5-of-6 from the line in the fourth quarter as Logan made good on 11-of-14 attempts from the charity stripe in the final stanza to pull away from Winfield.
The Lady Wildcats outscored the Lady Generals 11-7 in the fourth despite not making a single field goal to improve to 11-2 on the season.
“We got that monkey off our back after losing two in a row,” Logan coach Kevin Gertz said.
Logan rallied from a six-point first-half deficit by holding Winfield to four field goals in the final three quarters and forcing 21 turnovers.
“We have to force more turnovers than we allow, or we are hurting because we got for us to be successful, we have to get points out of our transition,” Gertz said. “We don’t have the size to set there and run set offenses and we got a lot of good set offenses, but we just don’t run them really well.”
Winfield coach Derrion Williams, whose Lady Generals came into the contest averaging 19.1 turnovers per game, said his team is starting to cut down on turnovers as the season progresses.
“You may think I am crazy but that is actually good, and we are getting better with turnovers,” Williams said. “We are young, and we just got a tendency to be careless with the ball.”
Winfield, who made only 11 field goals in the contest, was successful on seven field goal tries in the opening quarter and built a 15-10 lead after one quarter of play.
“It is not for a lack of opportunities because we got a ton of opportunities and we missed a lot of them,” Williams said.
Kennedy Dean led Winfield with 12 points while Kennedy Schiling added eight points, all of which coming in the opening quarter.
“I was worried about this game because they (Winfield) were playing much better and they were big,” Gertz said. “It’s hard for us to match up with that size because they are big and strong everywhere.”
Logan’s defense stepped up after the first quarter and held Winfield to 19 points over the final three quarters.
“They scored double figures in the first quarter and never came close again,” Gertz said. “We really defend and that’s our trademark, but I would have liked to have got a few more points so it wouldn’t be so tough.”
Winfield led Logan 22-20 at halftime but scored just five points in the third quarter and fell behind 33-27 after three quarters of play.
The Lady Generals held a 25-20 lead before the Lady Wildcats closed the quarter on a 13-2 run to take a lead they would not relinquish.
“I felt that our inexperience hurts us and even though we have seniors they haven’t played very many meaningful games,” Williams said. “We knew what we were into this afternoon, and we knew that they (Logan) were ranked for a reason.”
Winfield and could possibly meet in one of the two Class AAA Region 4 co-finals. If Winfield or Logan wins its respective section, then they will host one of the two regional championship co-finals. If they finish runner-up in their respective section, then they will travel for the regional championship co-finals.
Logan defeated Winfield 61-39 in last year’s Region 4 co-finals to advance to the state tournament.
“I have always said that this region and section is the hardest in our class,” Williams said. “Hopefully it’s not here if we were to meet again.”
Williams said the Lady Generals, who fell to 5-7 with the loss, continues to get better as the season goes.
“We only want to peak at the right time,” Williams said. “If we don’t peak again until sectional or regional time then I am perfectly fine with that.”
Winfield will host Cardinal Conference rival Scott on Monday. The Lady Skyhawks are 1-9 following a 56-50 setback at the hands of Chapmanville Regional on Saturday.
“There are no gimmes in the Cardinal Conference, regardless of what the record may say every single team is going to show up,” Williams said. “We are definitely not overlooking them, and we got to be ready to go Monday and hopefully we are ready to answer the challenge and get another win.”
Logan, who won its first nine games December, is just 2-2 in the month of January.
“We haven’t played much in the last couple of weeks,” Gertz said. “We are not getting in a good rhythm, and we will eventually get back to that.”
“We have turned this around and are on a one game winning streak,” Gertz said. “I want to be on a two-game winning streak and go from there.”
The Sissonville at Logan girls basketball originally scheduled for Monday, January 24, but moved to Wednesday, January 26, will now be played Tuesday, February 1, with JV to tip at 5:30 p.m. and varsity scheduled to tip at 7 p.m.
“I have not seen anything about Sissonville, but I will watch film on them, and we will have a walkthrough on Monday then we will play and hopefully it will be good enough,” Gertz said. “Chapmanville is playing really well, and they are coming off a big win at Mingo Central then we end the week at Nitro, which is another real good team.”
Winfield (34): Meghan Taylor 6, Lindsey Moore 4, Kennedy Dean 12, Kaitlyn Sayre 3, Antonela Johnson 1, Kennedy Schilling 8.
Logan (44): Natalie Blankenship 4, Abbie Myers 7, Halle Crouse 3, Peyton Ilderton 15, Emma Elkins 8, Autuman Adkins 3. Payton Butcher 2, Mika Dalton 2.
Winfield 15 7 5 7- 34
Logan 10 10 13 11- 44