Girls Basketball: Wolverines' Pressure Proves Too Much for Panthers

Fueled by a tenacious full-court, Western Tech pulled away from Pikesville for a convincing 55-17 victory in Tuesday’s Class 1A North quarterfinal matchup.

The Wolverines (20-3), forced 41 Panther turnovers, including 23 in the first half, as they jumped out to a 27-3 lead by halftime.

“We were able to press and that worked well for us,” Western Tech coach Nolan Roe said. “We were sloppy offensively in the first quarter, but then finally turned it up and [pulled away].”

The Wolverines actually led just 4-0 with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter. But sparked by Ebonee Dixon, who tallied nine of her game-high 15 points in the second quarter, Western Tech outscored Pikesville 23-3 during the final nine minutes of the first half.

And for the Panthers (7-14), who were without starting point guard Ronje’ James, the deficit was too large to overcome even with a strong second half from forward Alysha Davis (six points).

Brandee Tyler led Pikesville with seven points. Tyler had a game-high 22 points in last Friday’s 38-36 win against Carver in the first round of the Class 1A North playoffs.

“Western Tech’s a great team and they’re going to go places,” Panthers coach Kelley Powell said. “But I was proud of the way we hustled and didn’t give up in the second half. I feel like we showed some heart.”

Despite the loss, Powell is optimistic for the future, although she will have to replace five seniors from this year’s team. Pikesville had won seven of its last 14 games heading into Tuesday, after starting the season 0-6.

“We’re thrilled for next season,” said Powell, in her first season as Panthers coach after spending 10 years as a teacher and coach at Patapsco High School in Baltimore. “We have about 12 girls on [junior varsity] that had never played before this season so I’m looking forward to them going to camps over the summer, growing together and really becoming a cohesive unit. And we’re also going to look to pull in some girls that maybe didn’t try out this year. But we’ll do some building over the summer and see what we can do.”

Western Tech, meanwhile, will hope to build off Tuesday’s win while getting ready to face either Joppatowne or Loch Raven in the Class 1A North regional semifinals. Joppatowne won the Class 1A state championship last season.

“We’re just looking one game ahead right now,” Roe said. “Joppatowne’s the reigning state champion and they’re next in our bracket if they beat Loch Raven. So that’s what we’re looking at. We have to beat them if we’re going to go anywhere.”

CORRECTION: The original article had the incorrect last name for Brandee Dixon. We regret the error.