RACELAND, Ky. — As a team gets more games under its belt, one will find that if the chemistry is there with a team, its rhythm will grow as well.
The Wheelersburg Pirates’ girls basketball program certainly found a great rhythm in a New Year’s Eve contest against Raceland to close out the Ryan Keeton eXp Realty Classic, as Wheelersburg got 21 points from Callie DeHart and buried 10 three-pointers as the Lady Pirates moved to 6-3 on the year with a 63-42 victory over the Lady Rams Wednesday evening.
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For veteran head coach Dusty Spradlin, Wheelersburg’s work as a team was a credit to how the Lady Pirates attacked Raceland’s zone defense throughout the 32-minute affair.
“Zone defenses force you to work the ball around and be patient in terms of looking for the best shot available, but in doing that, you can get complacent in terms of losing aggressiveness,” Spradlin said. “We talked about the importance of trying to move the basketball but also, attacking some gaps when we had opportunities. It did help that we made some shots early, but the big key was that we were a lot more aggressive. I saw a lot of smiles on faces and was just happy that the kids were playing loose and having fun. That makes the game’s flow go easier.”
With the contest tied at five-all early in the going, Wheelersburg proceeded to go on an all-out blitz of Raceland early as the Lady Pirates blitzed the Lady Rams en route to going on a 12-1 spurt to end the first quarter, with DeHart knocking down three treys in the first frame along by herself.
DeHart, along with fellow backcourt partner Ava Artrip, gave Raceland problems all quarter long as the Lady Rams struggled to get into its sits. The duo ultimately combined for 13 of Wheelersburg’s 17 first-quarter points as the Lady Pirates took a 17-6 lead after the opening quarter of action.
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Wheelersburg continued to control the pace of play in the second quarter as the Lady Pirates ultimately went on a 25-3 run between the first two quarters — turning what was a tie at five-all into a commanding 30-8 second quarter advantage.
The highlight of the run was the bucket that officially capped the spurt off, as DeHart, initiating the offense, found Peyton May at the free throw line with a pass between the zone to the senior. May then placed a beautifully executed bounce back back to DeHart, who cut behind the zone perfectly and then proceeded to sprint all the way to the rack while absorbing contact at the rim for an and-one opportunity that was converted, giving Wheelersburg its 30-8 advantage.
“Those two have developed some of that chemistry that is so important as we attempt to make another run,” Spradlin said of DeHart and May. “Peyton had some of that with Mia (Vastine) last year, and it’s good to see those kids grow and get a little bit more comfortable with each other. I thought that the ball movement was pretty good, and it’s always good when the ball’s not sticking. It’s always good that they’re willing to share the ball.”
While DeHart, who finished with 16 of her team-high 21 points in the opening half, was strong throughout, Wheelersburg’s shooting was as well. Jalynn Prather and Lainey Skeenes each hit three treys apiece in the contest with Prather adding in 11 points and Skeenes nine during the game.
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The duo combined to hit three second-quarter treys and then added three more combined trifectas in the second half as the Pirates built its advantage to as much as 28 points (58-30) early in the fourth quarter. DeHart, who added in four treys herself to give Wheelersburg its total of 10 for the contest, was named the Ryan Keeton eXp Realty Classic Player of the Game for the Lady Pirates for her efforts.
“Callie was really good and we had other players hit big shots around her,” Spradlin said. “Lainey and Jaylnn can certainly shoot it, too. We’ve had some games where we’ve had some people make some shots. We haven’t had a game like this where we had multiple kids hit some threes. If you get kids making shots from there, we learn to play off of the dribble a little bit more and get Peyton involved a little bit more, it’s going to help us offensively.”
Defensively, Wheelersburg performed well as a unit. Raceland senior Nim Maynard, who has offers to play college basketball from over a half-dozen different programs and has led the Lady Rams in scoring for five consecutive seasons since her eighth-grade year back during the 2021-22 campaign — as Kentucky High School Athletic Association members allow seventh-graders to play up on varsity — had 28 points, but no other Raceland player had more than five tallies as the remaining Lady Ram lineup combined for just four field goals.
“I thought that our kids did a pretty good job on her,” Spradlin, who called Maynard a “really smart player,” said. “I liked the effort and the aggressiveness that we played with on both ends of the floor,” Spradlin said. “We’ve got to try to keep building on that. We have to continuously be aggressive.”
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Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025 — Morehead (Ky.) Rowan County 49, Wheelersburg 46
In its Tuesday afternoon contest against Rowan County, Wheelersburg gave the Lady Vikings all it could handle, overcoming an early 12-4 deficit by going on a 29-8 run to take a 33-20 halftime advantage, but fell to Rowan County by a scant three-point margin.
Wheelersburg enjoyed a terrific spurt during that spurt that included a 25-point second quarter. In starting that run between the last minute of the first quarter and the entire eight minutes of the second, Ava Artrip posted 12 points during that run while Lainey Skeenes hit three second-quarter treys en route to an 11-point second frame, giving Wheelersburg its 13-point lead at the half.
Artrip ultimately finished with 15 points while Skeenes added in 13 points and Callie DeHart eight to lead Wheelersburg. Artrip was named the Ryan Keeton eXp Realty Player of the Game for the Lady Pirates on Tuesday.
Wheelersburg plays Ironton in a contest that is scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Ironton.
