WAVERLY — All season long, the South Webster Jeeps’ girls basketball program has been building toward claiming a signature win that could arguably serve as a breakthrough victory for the group.
South Webster got that signature victory in a SOC III contest Thursday evening against the Waverly Tigers’ girls basketball program.
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The Lady Jeeps overcame a 14-8 first quarter deficit, and, after knocking on the door of fully taking control of the contest after trailing just 31-30 at the half and 42-40 after the third period, wore Waverly down in the fourth quarter as South Webster outscored the Lady Tigers 13-4 in the final eight-minute stanza to claim a 53-46 win for its second straight win.
In doing so, the Lady Jeeps not only knocked off what was the SOC III co-leader in Waverly, but has South Webster head coach Ryan Dutiel’s group back on the right side of .500 and, at 8-7 overall and 3-4 in the SOC III, even kept its chances at potentially sharing the conference title with a second half spurt alive in what is simply the latest story in what can be simply described as how the conference race has turned.
“My freshmen aren’t playing as much like freshmen anymore,” Dutiel said. “They have their moments and that’s to be expected — they’re still learning, growing and maturing. However, they are very quick studies, and they’ve learned from their mistakes. They’re playing better and better every game, and have become more consistent.”
Down by a 14-8 count after the opening quarter of play, and a 17-8 margin with 7:45 to go in the first half following a trey by Waverly’s Calli Knight, South Webster went to its senior leader for an offensive spark.
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And Addi Claxon delivered.
Answering Knight’s trey on the following possession, the Lady Jeeps’ elder stateswoman canned a right wing trey to pull South Webster within 17-11 with 7:28 to go in the opening half, then scored on a turnaround jumper through contact to pull the Lady Jeeps within a 17-13 margin.
Addi’s younger sister, Ava — who scored six of South Webster’s eight first quarter points — then canned a trey, and the nine-point lead that Waverly had was cut to just one, 17-16.
When Paige O’Bryant canned the first of her two treys in the second quarter to push the Lady Tigers’ lead back to two possessions at 20-16, South Webster responded in a massive manner.
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First, Ava Claxon called bank on a trey from the left wing, immediately drawing the Lady Jeeps within one, 20-19, with 4:35 remaining in the opening half.
Then older sister Addi took the controls back.
With 4:07 remaining in the first half, Addi Claxon’s floater in the middle of the lane just below the free throw line put South Webster ahead by one, 21-20. Then, following a rebound by Natalee Eskridge that was shuffled up ahead to Claxon, the senior rifled a perfect one-handed dime to Emma Campbell who finished off the glass.
Campbell then responded by returning the favor with a swing pass to the elder Claxon for three, as Addi canned a three-point field goal from the right wing with 2:02 to play in the second quarter.
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By that juncture, South Webster had turned deficits of 17-11 and 20-16 into an impressive 26-20 lead, holding Waverly without a point for over three minutes in the second quarter in doing so.
The elder Claxon, who ultimately scored 10 of her game-high 18 points in the second quarter, ultimately drew the Lady Jeeps within one, 31-30, at the halftime break.
“Addi’s had so much experience,” Dutiel said. “She’s been a varsity starter since Day One of her freshman year, and she’s just a natural-born leader. She does it in multiple sports, and she’s also very talented on top of having a great head. Her leadership can never be underestimated. She’s constantly talking to the other players and getting them in the right frame of mind and getting them on the right play. And they listen to her, as they should. It’s really turned out well for us.”
But understanding that Waverly had 31 points at the halftime break, Dutiel knew that in order to close the deal on the Lady Tigers on the road, the defense was going to have to slow Knight, Paige O’Bryant and Sadie Royster.
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And slow them they did.
While Waverly took two separate four-point leads of 36-32 and 39-35 over South Webster in the third quarter, the Lady Jeeps answered each time with three-point connections as Ava Claxon and Campbell both hit a timely three to pull the Lady Jeeps within one on both occasions before ultimately trailing by just two, 42-40, at the end of the third quarter.
But after taking a 45-40 lead with 6:05 to play, its largest of the second half, Waverly was completely shut down offensively as a swarming South Webster defense did nothing but aggravate the Lady Tigers.
Violet Edwards, who did much of the fourth quarter aggravating, scored through contact and knocked down a jumper to score four of her 10 points inside the final six minutes of play, then Ava Claxon answered her teammate’s production with a long two-point jumper with 5:13 to go, as her 16th and 17th points of the contest proved to be her biggest en route to giving South Webster the lead for good.
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“Violet is stepping up big time,” Dutiel said. “She’s usually guarding one of the opposing team’s best players if not the best player, and she’s accepting and thriving in that role. Offensively, she just has a nose for the ball. She’s always around the rim and always going after loose balls. Emma Campbell has really stepped up as well. Emma played big (on Thursday). She was able to control the ball on a couple of drives there, make nice drives to the basket, and got a couple of baskets that I don’t think Waverly expected of her when she was driving, and she made them play when she did.”
Just 49 seconds later, Addi Claxon again found space behind the line on the left wing, and true to form, drilled a three-point field goal that put South Webster in front by two possessions for good as the Lady Jeeps led 49-45 with 4:12 to play.
South Webster’s defense held strong the rest of the way as the Lady Jeeps held Waverly to just one point over the contest’s final 6:04 and no field goals, while the Lady Tigers’ Big Three of Royster, Knight and O’Bryant were held to just 10 points combined in the second half.
“The focus at halftime was to limit them to one shot,” Dutiel said. “We didn’t want to allow Waverly to get extra looks at the basket, especially (Paige) O’Bryant. She’s so quick and athletic. We had to limit her touches, and we felt that if we limited O’Bryant’s touches and kept (Sadie) Royster in front of us and put her in situations where she had to give the ball up, too, we felt like that was going to play to our advantage. We did that with the defense that Emma, Addi and Violet supplied on her. They really turned up the heat defensively in the last quarter.”
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Thursday’s win now has South Webster firmly in fourth place in the SOC III race — and while the Lady Jeeps will need to win all three games to earn a share of the conference title, one can never say never in what has been one fanatical frenzy of a SOC III race.
“You can’t sleep on anybody,” Dutiel said. “This is the most competitive that I have ever seen the league, from top to bottom, since I’ve been in the league. It’s just super competitive and you have to have your best game, or you’re going to go home with a loss. Every coach has their team so well coached and so well prepared, so everybody has to be on their ‘A’ game.”
