McDermed steps up in Fort Scott girls victory

Saturday, February 20, 2010

By Scott Nuzum

Herald-Tribune

FORT SCOTT -- Fort Scott junior Megan McDermed stepped up with a season-high 23 points Friday night as the Tigers took control in the second half of a 42-29 victory in Southeast Kansas League play at the FSHS gymnasium.

McDermed's effort was needed as well as senior Jolee Sharp just wasn't clicking and had to settle for just 9 points as she made only 2 of 12 shots from the field. But McDermed, who had scored 22 points twice in earlier games, hit on 10 of 15 fielders.

"Well, that was huge for Megan," Fort Scott head coach Jeff Armstrong said. "Iola was keying on Jo and she did press a bit at times ... maybe not letting the game come to her as she normally does. So it was big for Megan to step up like that because that's what we need. You can't rely on one person, night in and night out."

The teams traded scores in the first quarter with McDermed scoring last to put the Tigers (12-3 SEK, 13-6 overall) a 9-5 lead. A McDermed stickback made it 14-11 halfway through the second period.

But the Tigers didn't score again the rest of the half as Iola (4-10, 6-12) fought back by outworking Fort Scott on the boards. Jazmyne Honeycutt scored back-to-back buckets to put the Fillies ahead for the first time, 15-13, with 2:45 to go. Kristin McGuffin and Shelby Greenwood each scored their only baskets of the night in the final 1:40 to extend the lead to 5 points at the break.

"We knew that Iola's going to be prepared and that it was going to be a defensive battle because that's the type of team they are," Armstrong said. "In the first half, we didn't come out with the intensity that we wanted to."

McDermed scored the first three baskets of the third quarter to keep the Tigers in it. Kelsey Larson's layup with 2:35 left made it a 24-20 lead for the Fillies.

But then it was Iola's turn to slump as the Tigers scored 8 straight to finish the period, going 6 for 6 at the free-throw line. Sharp hit 2 of them with 44 seconds left to put Fort Scott back in front. Sammi Therwhanger made two more with 4 seconds left to make it 28-24 at the final break.

Sharp converted a 3-point play to start the fourth quarter and McDermed followed by hitting a 12-foot jumper off a Therwhanger assist to make it 33-24.

Honeycutt converted a 3-point play with 4:01 to go to cut the Fillies' deficit to 35-29. But Iola never scored again.

The Tigers held Iola to 4-of-23 field-goal shooting in the second half and forced 6 turnovers in the fourth quarter.

"Courtney (Carpenter) played a great defensive game," Armstrong said. "Sammi made some good passes on the baseline. She's been sort of ill this week and she was able to play through that. The contributions don't always show up in the stats but they were huge for victory tonight."

Sharp was still able to score 9 points, with a first-quarter basket establishing yet another Fort Scott High School scoring record as that pushed her past Dennie Young for the all-time single-season girls' scoring record. Sharp currently has 399 points this season. Young scored 390 in the 1991-92 season. With this, Sharp owns the all-time single-game (34 points), single-season and career (1,066) scoring records for FSHS girls.

Honeycutt led Iola with 10 points. The Fillies shot just 26 percent from the floor, making 12 of 46 field goals overall.

Fort Scott shot 39 percent from the field on 14 of 36 but made 13 of 15 free throws and outrebounded Iola, 34-26. McDermed and Therwhanger each had 9 rebounds.

The Tigers entered the night in second place in the SEK and will remain there as Labette County defeated Columbus, 49-39, to improve to 12-2, 14-4. The Grizzlies play at Chanute Tuesday while Fort Scott is idle. A Labette County victory then will assure the Grizzlies of no worse than a share of the championship. LCHS is at Parsons Thursday night while Fort Scott hosts winless Coffeyville on the final night of the regular season.

Fort Scott gained a leg up in Sub-State seeding when Spring Hill lost to Baldwin, 67-56. The Tigers and Broncos (12-7) entered the night with the same record. Ottawa (15-2) has clinched the No. 1 seed but now Fort Scott is one game ahead of Spring Hill for the No. 2 seed. Spring Hill doesn't play again until it travels to Eudora Thursday night.

In Friday's junior varsity contest, Fort Scott defeated Iola 41-32 as Morgan Tourtillott scored 16 points. Fort Scott's freshmen beat Iola 43-10. No other information was available from that game.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: