Zizzer Girls Upset State-Ranked Rolla, 65-55!

The Lady Zizzers pulled off an upset against State-ranked, Class 6 Rolla Lady Bulldogs, last Thursday, January 16, and won 65-55.

 

After a disappointing road loss to Republic, 50-55, earlier in the week, the West Plains girls took control in the middle of the first quarter over Rolla and never fell behind again. At the end of the first quarter, West Plains was ahead, 17-9.

 

Rolla fought back from a 12-point hole in the second quarter before halftime but the Zizzers were still leading, 30-25.

 

Rolla had no answer for the tall, inside players of the Lady Zizzers in the third quarter. Shaylee Peterson put up nine points all in the paint and Gillian Green blocked three Rolla shots. At the end of three quarters, West Plains was up, 45-40.

 

The fourth quarter seemed like it might come to a tight finish as Rolla pulled within three points early on but a couple of well-timed three pointers by Ashley Culton and Zoe Scharnhorst stretched the Zizzer lead to 10. The Lady Zizzers pulled off the upset over Rolla, 65-55!

 

“The story of the game was told in rebounding and field goal percentage,” said Zizzer head coach Christy Otter. “We outrebounded Rolla 36-24 and those rebounds gave us 18 second chance points to their 4. We shot a red hot 55.6% from 3, 50% overall to Rolla’s 35%.”

 

The girls from West Plains were led in scoring by Shaylee Peterson with 20 points, Gillian Green had 15 points, Zoe Scharnhorst scored 14 points with four 3-pointers, Ainsley McWilliams had 10 points, and Ashley Culton and Delani Wahome each had three points.“Before the game we just kept talking about what we focus on becomes bigger. One focus in practice has been finishing in the paint better. Shaylee Peterson, Gillian Green, and Delani Wahome owned the paint. I was so proud of how they played on the interior both scoring and rebounding and our guards did their job of finding the open player, knocking down shots and playing great defense on Rolla’s very talented guards,” said Coach Otter.

 

The West Plains girls travel to Bolivar three nights this week for a tournament. 

 

The Lady Zizzers are 8-6 on the season.