Lady Indians lose to Petersburg

The Berkeley Springs girls basketball team has had trouble playing consistently well for the entire 32 minutes in games this year, according to their coach Dale McCumbee. And, Petersburg took advantage of the Indian flaw on their way to a 63-45 win on Saturday, January 13, in Petersburg.

"We just keep shooting ourselves in the foot," McCumbee said. "We play well in stretches, but then we have other stretches that are just the opposite. We were down by one point on Saturday with 1:18 left in the opening half. Alex Tamez came up with a big steal and we had a chance to take the lead. We

didn't take advantage of the situation and Petersburg hit a pair of three-point shots in the final minute to stretch the lead to seven points. Then we turned the ball over something like seven of ten trips down the floor in the third quarter and let them (Petersburg) take control of the game. They weren't pressuring us, we just made some bad decisions with the ball. It is that kind of stuff that has been killing us.

Petersburg, leading 30-23 at the intermission, really took control of the game in the third quarter, outscoring Berkeley Springs 23-7, for a 53-30 lead heading into the final quarter of play. The Indians outscored their Grant County rival 15 to 10 in the final eight minutes, but never threatened the Viking lead.

Berkeley Springs out-rebounded Petersburg 24-21, but poor shooting from the field and the free throw line was costly to the Indians. For the game, Berkeley Springs made only 15 of 43 shots (35%) and 13 of 23 from the free throw line (56.5%). On the other hand, Petersburg made 20 of 41 shots from the floor and 18 of 24 free throws,

"We are still struggling from the free throw line and we did not shoot the ball real well today," said McCumbee. "I'll give our girls credit, because this was one of the most physical games we've played and they did not back down. We simply made too many errors and did not shoot the ball well."

Amber Booher led Berkeley Springs in scoring with 14 points. Rebecca Trump scored 10, Tamez seven, Kayla Hill and Jessica Haynes four each, with Courtney Kesecker and Ashley Hovermale adding three points apiece to round out the scoring.

Chelsea Turner led Petersburg with 17 points.

Petersburg improved to 7-3 on the year, while Berkeley Springs fell to 6-6.

The Berkeley Springs junior varsity team defeated Petersburg 37-24. Tied 7-7, at the half, the Indians exploded for 17 third-quarter points, to gain the upper-hand 24-17, and then coasted to the 13-point victory.

Jessica Haynes scored 18 points to lead the Berkeley Springs offense, Shauni Stevens added eight, Alyssa Spielman seven, Maddy Parrill three and Leslie Yost one to the Indian total.

Berkeley Springs hosts Musselman tonight, January 17, at 7:30 p.m. and will finish the week against Hancock in Hancock, Md. on Friday, January 19.