Panel discusses importance of women in politics
SPORTS

Shermans fight off resilient Huntsmen

Brock Netter
Correspondent
Unioto played McClain Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, at Unioto High School.

CHILLICOTHE - When in doubt, put the ball in the hands of your seniors and let them operate.

Unioto’s Caroline Thiel finished with a game-high 26 points and eight rebounds, including scoring the first seven points in the fourth quarter, to lead her Shermans (2-0, 1-0 SVC) to a 78-65 victory over Huntington Thursday night.

“After the first game against McClain, we could tell she wasn’t too happy with how she played,” Unioto coach Jeff Miller said. “She only had four points and she struggled a little bit. She’s a pretty even-keeled kid. But I could tell she was upset and I told our coaching staff that she was going to come back and have a pretty good game. She did exactly what we asked her to do and I’m really proud of her.”

Although Thiel did her damage in the fourth quarter, Jocie Fisher got the ball rolling for the Shermans. Unioto jumped out to an early 6-2 lead, but Huntington (1-1, 0-1 SVC) countered back and cut the deficit to 8-6 with 4:30 remaining.

Then Fisher’s hustle and effort made its way onto the floor. The sophomore scored six of the next seven Sherman’ points and pushed the lead to 15-6 before Unioto ended the quarter on a 9-2 run to take a 24-8 lead.

“She’s been great from the scrimmages we’ve had and through the first two games,” Miller said. “She’s going to be that kid who can get you 10 points and 10 rebounds a night and as she becomes more comfortable in the offense, those numbers will probably increase.”

Down 35-12, Huntington answered with a 7-0 run, with five of those points coming from Braiden Collins, to make the score 35-19. Each team would score five points apiece to end the first half as Unioto held a 40-24 lead going into the break.

Something clicked during halftime and the Huntsmen began to gain some ground on the Shermans in the third.

With the score at 45-26, the Huntsmen exploded on an 11-2 run, led by Collins and Kelsey McDonald, to close the gap to 47-37 with 5:06 left.

Rikki Magill nailed a jumper a little later to make it a seven-point game, 49-42. But Unioto pushed their lead back up to 58-49 before Magill buried a three-pointer at the buzzer to make the score 58-52 heading into the fourth quarter.

In the third quarter, Huntington was 9-of-14 shooting, including 7-of-12 from the charity stripe while Unioto shot 6-of-15 from the field and just 4-of-7 from free throw.

But in the fourth, it was Thiel to the rescue.

As she scored the first seven points of the quarter, the Shermans rallied around her and pieced together a 14-4 run to extend the lead to 72-56 with 4:00 left and ultimately put the game on ice.

“There are a lot of things to improve on, but we continued to battle,” Miller said. “I told the girls that we can correct our mistakes in practice, but you can’t correct not playing hard. And even when things are crumbling a little and we’re still playing hard for 32 minutes, that’s huge.”

Along with Thiel’s 26 point, eight rebound effort, Summer Sigman finished with 18 points, five rebounds and three assists. Fisher posted a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds with Emily Coleman logged 11 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Collins led the Huntsmen with 25 points and six rebounds, Magill had 22 points, four rebounds and three assists and McDonald had 16 points and six rebounds.

Both teams return to action on Saturday as Unioto travels to Logan while Huntington plays Berne Union as part of the Zane Trace Tip-Off Classic.