Lady Pacer coach Wayne Ellegood called his team “relaxed”. For the Shawe Lady Hilltoppers, last Thursday night’s regular season finale against Switzerland County was anything but soothing, as the Lady Pacers jumped out fast and hard, dismantling Shawe by a final score of 82-21.
“I think our kids were just relaxed and ready to play,” Coach Ellegood said. “We were coming off of two emotional games against South Ripley and Southwestern, so I think our players just relaxed and played.”
The relaxed Lady Pacers raced out to a 21- 3 lead at the end of the first quarter, as Shawe tried to keep up while still recovering from a bout with the flu that forced the school to cancel some games because they didn’t have enough healthy players.
As Thursday’s game moved along, the Lady Hilltoppers were probably still feeling ill.
By halftime the score was 40-10 in favor of the Lady Pacers, as Switzerland County shot a blistering 55.9 percent from the floor (19-for-34) while Shawe was just 4-for-22, or 18.2 percent.
As if the first half onslaught wasn’t enough, Switzerland County actually improved its shooting in the second half, going 17-for-29 for 58.6 percent. The Lady Pacers shot over 57 percent for the game.
The score ballooned to 62-19 after three periods, and by the time the final whistle had blown, the Lady Pacers were holding a 61-point advantage.
Switzerland County out rebounded Shawe by a 44-31 margin; and the Lady Pacers committed just 10 turnovers in the game to Shawe’s 26. Switzerland County had 17 steals in the game, and blocked 11 shots.
Even with the lopsided loss, Coach Ellegood still had encouraging words for the Lady Hilltoppers and head coach John Kalb.
“Unfortunately the score doesn’t reflect how much better Shawe is playing,” the coach said. “Coach Kalb has done a lot with his kids and they’ve really come a long way.”
“We were totally dominated in every aspect of the game,” Coach Kalb said. “We don’t match up physically with Switzerland County, but with a quality team like the Lady Pacers, you must be mentally prepared to play the game. We were not.”
Ashley Chase led Switzerland County with 21 points on the night; while Jaclyn Ranz was also in double figures with 17. Brittany Cole made it three Lady Pacers in double figures with 13 points; and Holly Jackson added nine. Ashley Bright and Courtney Cole finished with five points each; Brittany Hall had four points; Tanya Sefton had three; Natalie Daugherty and Amanda Hon had two each; and April Thieman contributed one point.