Last home game sees Shepherd dismantle Pitt-Johnstown

Kenya Dozier (24) and Washington had their season ended by Musselman in the Class AAA, Region II, Section 1 tourney.

SHEPHERDSTOWN— Personal career highs and a raucous send off for its seniors were the highlights in Shepherd’s 91-69 women’s basketball victory at the Butcher Center last Wednesday against Pitt-Johnstown.

With Emily Daniel accounting for a career-high 24 points and freshman center Gabby Flinchum achieving her career-best 22 points on 11-for-13 from the field, the Lady Rams clinched a first-round home game in next week’s WVIAC tournament.

The Senior Night performance helped send off the three senior starters with Shepherd’s seventh win in the last eight games. After taking a 40-33 lead at the half, Shepherd came back to score 51 points in the second half to steadily move away from the Mountain Cats.

Shepherd savaged the Mountain Cats on the boards, claiming 47 rebounds to the visitors’ 24. Flinchum added 12 rebounds to her 22-point scoring total. Reserve Priscilla Moseh had eight rebounds and Daniel was credited with six.

Shepherd senior Jenn Prine scored 15 points and Moseh scored 12 more points. Moseh was 5-for-6 from the field.

Alex Tamez had eight assists to mostly offset her four turnovers.

Shepherd was 16-10 overall and its 13-7 WVIAC record had it in fourth place just ahead of Fairmont with two road games left on the regular season schedule. The Mountain Cats were 12-11 overall and 10-9 in the conference.

In a game where the Shepherd women had shooting problems from all over, the Lady Rams survived the cold spell to eke out a 52-48 road win over conference rival Ohio Valley.

Shepherd was 17-10 overall and remained in fourth place in the WVIAC with a 14-7 league mark. Ohio Valley was 11-15 overall and 7-13 in the conference.

The Lady Rams close the regular season tonight (Wednesday) at Davis & Elkins and open the WVIAC tournament on Monday, February 27 at home.

Ohio Valley held a 30-28 lead at the half, and Shepherd only took the lead at 44-42 with 4:11 to play. The Lady Rams made 34.5 percent of their field goal tries and only 8-of-18 (44.4 percent) of their free throws. The Fighting Scots made 33.9 percent of their field goal tries, 14.3 percent of their three-point efforts, and 55.6 percent of their few free throw tries.

Shepherd was careless enough to have 21 turnovers and Ohio Valley followed along with its 23 turnovers.

Shepherd played without leading scorer and leading rebounder Emily Daniel and found nobody to accomplish what Daniel usually gives the Lady Rams.