TENNERTON – Following a tough week that saw the seventh-ranked Buckhannon-Upshur Lady Bucs drop a pair of games to two top-five teams in North Marion and Wheeling Park, the team rebounded in a big way with a convincing 61-36 home win over the Liberty Mountaineers Tuesday night at the high school gym.
“It felt good to get back on track tonight,” remarked Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Rob Kittle. “I thought we had a very balanced attack and had several girls step up. We were very unselfish, especially in the second quarter and second half.”
The Lady Bucs raced out to a 15-5 lead after one quarter and never looked back in their 25-point win.
Kenna Maxwell led the Lady Bucs in scoring in the first quarter with five points while Shelby McDaniels and Gabby Parke each had four points and Kendal Currence two.
The Lady Bucs extended their lead to 31-17 at the break as Currence put in six points, Maxwell four, Kyndal Davis three, McDaniels two, and Alyssa Abel one in the second stanza.
Buckhannon-Upshur put the game out of reach in the third quarter winning it by a 19-10 count.
That gave them a 50-27 advantage going into the final quarter.
The Lady Bucs got eight points from McDaniels, four from Abel, three from Parke, and two each from Maxwell and Currence in the third quarter.
With McDaniels scoring five points and Maxwell, Parke and Davis each dropping in a basket, the Lady Bucs took the final quarter by an 11-9 margin.
McDaniels scored a game-high 19 points while Maxwell had 13 and Currence 10.
Liberty was led by Riley Pearlman who scored 10 points.
The Mountaineers dropped to 6-5 on the year.
The Lady Bucs improved to 7-2 on the season.
They will take to the road Thursday to face Class AAA No. 1 Fairmont Senior.
The game will tip at 5:45 p.m.
The boxscore:
Liberty 5 12 10 9 – 36
Buckhannon-Upshur 15 16 19 11 – 61
Liberty 36
Riley Pearlman 4 2-3 10; Emma Elliott 3 2-4 8; Hailey Haynes 3 1-2 7; Emma Kyle 2 2-4 6; Gabby Forman 1 0-0 3; Makayla Thompson 1 0-0 2; Amariah Cain 0 0-2 0; Jazalynn 0 0-0 0; Colleen Matheny 0 0-0 0; Destiny Berryman 0 0-0 0; Jessika Thompson 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 7-15 36.
Buckhannon-Upshur 61
Shelby McDaniels 6 5-8 19; Kenna Maxwell 6 0-0 13; Kendal Currence 5 0-0 10; Gabby Parke 4 0-0 9; Alyssa Abel 1 3-4 5; Kyndal Davis 2 1-2 5; Olivia Ellis 0 0-0 0; Brooklyn Smith 0 0-0 0; Rosie Shackleford 0 0-0 0; Reginia Petrokovich 0 0-0 0; Casadie Lahnam 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 9-14 61.
Three-point field goals – Liberty: Forman 1. Totals Buckhannon-Upshur: McDaniels 2; Maxwell 1; Parke 1. Totals 4.
Fouls – Liberty:11; Buckhannon-Upshur 12.
Free throw percentage – Liberty: 7-for-15 for 46.7; Buckhannon-Upshur: 9-for-14 for 64.3 percent.
