Union-Bulletin

COLLEGE PLACE — To call a game with 57 turnovers and 47 fouls sloppy is an understatement.

To call foul shots crucial when the two teams combine to shoot 61 of them is dead-on accurate and ultimately the difference in Walla Walla Valley Academy’s 50-42 girls Southeast B Southern Division basketball victory over Dayton here Tuesday.

For the game, the Knights sank 20-of-32 attempts for 63 percent. Dayton managed just 13-of-29 for 45 percent.

"(Victoria Buell and Kindra Moore’s) free-throw shooting was huge," WWVA coach Monty Buell said. "There were a lot of fouls. It’s really helpful that they hit their free throws, because without them we wouldn’t have won it."

"It was an ugly, ugly game. We didn’t play well at all," Dayton coach Scott Hudson said. "We didn’t put the ball in the hole. We turned the ball over 30 times. Most of those were unforced. The girls’ minds just were not in the game today.

"Give WWVA credit. They were ready to play. They wanted it more than our girls did."

The game was an even affair through the first 16 minutes, with neither team gaining greater than a three-point advantage over the other before half.

That changed out of intermission. Up by two, the Knights sprinted to an 8-0 run in a one-minute, 20-second span early in the third quarter that pushed the lead for the first time to double digits. Elizabeth Field scored two layups, while Moore and Buell each shot perfect pairs from the free-throw line.

Dayton responded with a 6-1 run of its own on jumpers by Samura Miller and Jessica Lambert, and a layin by Victoria Trump. The run could have been greater, but leading rebounder Shelby Smith (10) missed four consecutive tries from the charity stripe keeping the deficit at five. Moore finished off the quarter with a layup and another 2-for-2 foul-line performance to bump the lead back to nine.

Buell opened the fourth quarter scoring with a layup at 7:11 to build the Knights’ lead to 11.

But Dayton countered with a 10-3 run over the next four minutes to cut the lead back to four.

Again, Dayton failed to make up ground at the foul line as it hit on just 3-of-7 attempts in the span.

WWVA’s Buell, meanwhile, hit 3-of-4.

After a Dayton timeout with 2:58 remaining, the tide turned back in the Knights favor as WWVA finished the game on an 8-4 run.

"That fourth quarter there scared us (coaches) on the bench," Buell said. "We went about three minutes without scoring. We were up 10 and Dayton just played really good defense and took good shots. Finally, we were able to score and force them to scramble in the end."

"I never felt like we were out of the game," Hudson said. "I thought our girls would start to step it up, because I know what we can play like. But that wasn’t anything close to it. We’d get steals and then turn around and throw the ball out of bounds. We wouldn’t rebound, or we wouldn’t make our foul shot, or we wouldn’t make our (floor) shot.

"We were lethargic all night, and it was very disappointing."

Buell led all scorers with 17 points. Moore followed closely with 15. Buell also registered a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds for the Knights.

No Bulldogs scored in double figures. Kayla Dedloff was tops with nine.

DAYTON (42) — Smith 1 3-9 5, Miller 2 1-2 5, Bickelhaupt 2 0-1 5, Lambert 1 0-0 2, Tate 0 1-4 1, Trump 1 0-0 2, Lockard 1 3-4 6, Varney 3 1-3 7, Dedloff 2 4-6 9. Totals 13 13-29 42.

WALLA WALLA VALLEY ACADEMY (50) — Felice 0 0-2 0, K. Buell 1 2-4 4, Moore 4 7-13 15, V. Buell 4 9-12 17, Field 4 1-1 9, Will 0 0-0 0, Brewer 0 0-0 0, Patino 0 0-0 0, Schafer 2 1-4 5. Totals 15 20-32 50.

Dayton 7 15 6 14 — 42

WWVA 9 15 13 13 — 50

3-point goals — Dayton 3 (Bickelhaupt, Lockard, Dedloff), WWVA 0. Total fouls—Dayton 24, WWVA 23 Fouled out—Dayton (Tate). Technical fouls—Dayton (bench). Rebounds—Dayton 32 (Smith 10), WWVA 29 (V. Buell 10). Turnovers—Dayton 29, WWVA 28.