BY BRIAN HAMILTON
MARYVILLE – It was a battle of two winless teams on Tuesday night, so something had to give. The 0-10 Wesleyan Lady Wolves visited 0-8 Maryville College with both squads eyeing its first win of the season. The Lady Scots came away with its first win of the season and it wasn’t close, by defeating Wesleyan 75-34. Maryville College coach Darrin Travillian said it started with a change in how his team plays.
“We spent the entire preseason chunking the ball from the three-point line and we shot 19-percent for the first eight non-conference games and we were 0-8,” Travillian said after the game. “I’m not the brightest bulb, but that clearly wasn’t the recipe to get it done. Since we came back from the new year, we’re changing how we’re going to play. People use that ‘new year, new me’ verbiage all the time and it’s like a bumper sticker and a hashtag. What does that mean? It doesn’t do anything unless you’re going to make substance and change, so for us, it truly has been a new approach to how we’re going to play.”
Maryville College’s Emily Allen (23) goes up for a layup while Nathalie Santana (3) and Zariah Davis (10) defend for Wesleyan. Photo by Brian Hamilton
Maryville College collected its first overall win of the season and first win in its first conference game of the season. Sports is a fickle thing, but imagine changing your mindset from being winless to being undefeated in the span of two hours.
“We’re into the new season now; we’re into the conference season and you have not a single statistic in the conference, so don’t worry about your field goal percentage and don’t worry about how many points you’ve been giving up. Don’t worry about any of that stuff because none of it carries over,” said Travillian. “This is conference season, so let’s play with this new approach and this new purpose. Everybody in that locker room has won basketball games before, so you’re going to win, but it just feels like, ‘when’s it gonna happen?’ We’re 1-0 and I don’t care about the other games. We’ve got 16 of those conference games, so let’s be the best that we can be in those games.”
Ella Haney opened up the scoring with a driving layup to give Maryville College an early 2-0 lead. Wesleyan would respond with baskets by Jatayah Bryant and Maya Whitehead to take a 4-2 lead with 6:12 left in the first quarter. This would be the Wolves only lead of the contest, which lasted all of 28 seconds.
A layup by Kadence Stoner would tie the game at 4-4, followed by two free throws by Emma Huskey to give Maryville a 6-4 lead with just over five minutes left in the first quarter. The Lady Scots would cap off a 10-0 run with a layup by Emily Allen, making the score 12-4 with four minutes left in the period.
Kalynn Smith converted an old-fashioned three-point play to trim the Maryville lead to 12-7 with 1:46 left, but the Lady Scots would take a 16-8 lead into the second quarter.
Maryville College opened the second quarter with a 9-3 run to take a 25-11 lead with just over six minutes left until halftime. Wesleyan would cut into that lead when Briscia Tejada grabbed a steal and took it for a layup to make the score 25-13 with 5:43 left.
Halle Kitchen grabbed a steal and tossed it ahead to Huskey for a layup to increase the Lady Scots’ lead to 27-13 with under five minutes left in the half. Braxton Fritz nailed a three to make the score 32-13, capping a 7-0 Maryville run.
Smith hit a layup to pull Wesleyan to within 32-15, but Ella Tharpe answered with a long jumper to make the score 34-15 with 3:19 left in the half. Kitchen hit a layup to stretch the Maryville lead to 42-15 with 34 seconds left, as the Lady Scots ended the half on a 10-0 run and took a 27-point advantage into the intermission.
Maryville College’s Ella Tharpe (11) goes full force to the rim during the Lady Scots’ 75-34 win over Wesleyan. Photo by Brian Hamilton
Kitchen opened the third quarter with a corner three to make the score 45-15. Wesleyan would score its first basket of the third quarter midway through when Smith hit a shot to pull to within 48-17. Maryville College led 58-23 after three quarters.
The Wolves scored the first four points of the fourth quarter, but Tayloe Bledsoe responsed with a long corner jumper to make the score 60-27 with 7:35 left in the quarter.
Zariah Davis hit a jumper to pull Wesleyan to within 66-29 with 5:17 left. Niles Daniel would later hit a layup to halt a Wolves run and make the score 68-31 with 3:41 remaining.
Wesleyan’s Bryant hit a three to make the score 71-34 with 2:40 to go, but the Lady Scots would close out the first win with a pair of free throws by Kaylen Shultz with 34 seconds left to come away with a 75-34 win.
Emma Huskey, Maryville College’s only senior, led the Lady Scots with 12 points and seven rebounds in only 17 minutes.
“I would like to keep a high energy with my team,” Huskey said. “Usually with me getting stops and taking charges, it helps the team get into our hype mood and helps us perform well. I think we all needed this win and helps our confidence to show that we can do it and that we’re not a losing team. We have so much talent in our team, even though we are young, but we need another win to continue and build a winning streak.”
True freshman Halle Kitchen also finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists in 27 minutes of play while coming off the bench.
“In the preseason, she won the starting point guard position, but she was really having a hard time getting some buckets and seeing the ball go through the net, so I think that just getting her to settle down a little bit goes a long way, because she had won a spot for a reason, so we needed to get her going again,” Travillian said. “Offensively, she made some shots, but she also had a lot of assists and she got us up and down the floor. She has a point guard presence that we really need, but we also need her to be confident and comfortable out there.”
Ella Tharpe also added 11 points and six rebounds for Maryville College. All Lady Scots scored in the contest.
“Everybody got in the scoring column, which is great,” said Travillian. “This group is really close knit and they really cheer for each other hard and they’re happy to see each other do well. The bench was excited when we were seeing everybody get their points.”
Wesleyan was led by Jatayah Bryant and Kalynn Smith, who scored nine points apiece.
Maryville College (1-8) will try and put together a win streak starting tomorrow, as the Lady Scots host Warren Wilson, who is also winless at 0-12. The Lady Owls will be Maryville’s last non-conference opponent of the season.
Travillian said that while Warren Wilson is winless, they do present some challenges and that he would like for his team to focus on itself and building on this win before conference play begins.
“We’d just like to get some momentum and maybe a streak before we get into this full blown conference play.”