Lady Wolverines end SRV play with loss to McCall

The Weiser Lady Wolverines hosted the McCall Vandals on Tuesday, Jan. 30 for the final SRV league game. McCall needed to win the game against Weiser to finish ahead of Parma in the SRV league, while Weiser’s league finish would remain unaffected by the outcome of the game. The Vandals played with a purpose and handed the Wolverines an unwelcome loss.

 The Wolverines had a slow start to the game, with the Vandals quickly scoring 7 points within the first 3 minutes, while Weiser failed to score despite multiple attempts. However, with around 5 minutes left in the first quarter, Hailey Eames made Weiser’s first basket with a strong move over McCall’s tall post. 

 Despite Weiser’s basket, McCall went on a 10 to 0 scoring run until Ellie Shirts added another basket for Weiser with a floater from near the free-throw line. Kendall Rynearson also scored for Weiser by driving past McCall’s half-court press and sinking a basket in the paint.  

 With less than a minute left in the first quarter, Paisley Noyer passed the ball to Lucy Hickey beyond the arc for a 3-pointer, adding to Weiser’s score. At the end of the first quarter, the score was Weiser 9, McCall 19.

 Rynearson scored the first basket in the second quarter for Weiser with a well-executed faked pass, one dribble, and pulled up at the wing for a 3-pointer. Soon afterward, Hickey playing strong defense blocked a Vandal shot. 

 The Wolverines managed to outscore the Vandals in the second quarter and reduced McCall’s lead to 9 points. At halftime, the score was Weiser 27, McCall 36.

 The third quarter was a much different story as McCall increased their lead to 18 points and Weiser was only able to put up 9 points. 

 Evie Dolton had a steal for Weiser 3 minutes 30 seconds in and passed it up court to Shirts who scored Weiser’s first points of the second half. 

 Over 3 minutes later, Trista Buescher found Noyer open down low for Weiser’s second bucket of the third. 

 With 3 quarters in the books, Weiser was down 35 to 53. 

 Weiser worked hard in the fourth to create scoring opportunities and played strong defense, but McCall was able to overcome whatever Weiser gave them, increasing their lead to 26 points by the end of the game. At the final buzzer, Weiser lost 48 to 74.

 The top scorer for Weiser was Rynearson with 15 points, closely followed by Shirts with 13. Hickey had 6 points, Eames 5, Noyer 4, Buescher and Dolton each had 2, and Lockett added 1.

 Eames was the top rebounder for the Wolverines with 10 rebounds. Hickey and Dolton each had 6 rebounds.

 Despite the end-of-league records looking like two teams dominated, it has been a tight conference where 7 of the 12 games between the top 4 teams have been decided by 5 points or less.

 Going into SRV District Tournament it was Fruitland in first place at 8-2, McCall also with 8-2 was in second, Parma in third at 7-3, fourth was Weiser at 5-5, followed by Homedale at 2-8, and Payette ended league with a 0-10 record. 

 With the season completed, Weiser hosted Homedale on Thursday, Feb. 1 for the first game of the district tournament.

 Scores at the end of quarters:

Weiser McCall

1st: 9 19

2nd: 27 36     

3rd: 35 53

4th: 48 74