GIRLS BASKETBALL: Strong second half lifts Lady Falcons over Z-R

A dominant second half helped the Lady Falcons secure their second win in a row on Monday night, a 49-22 road victory against Zeigler-Royalton, after leading by only two points at halftime.

Elverado shut the Lady Tornadoes out completely in the third quarter, 14-0, and held Z-R to just four total points in the entire second half.

"They decided they wanted to play basketball in the second half," said EHS head coach Rasheeda Love. "We've had two days off, they were already on Christmas vacation in the first half. Today we had a shoot-around, a couple people were late. It's kind of difficult to get them back going again and let them know we're not on Christmas break yet."

Elverado's Brooke Whittington did not play after suffering an injury in practice last week, but is expected to return to action when the team begins play in the Chester Tournament on January 4. In her absence, Hannah Alstat stepped up with one of her best games of the season, dropping 19 points including 3 three-pointers.

"You have to be ready when your card is pulled, you never know what's going to happen in the game of basketball," Love said. "With Brooke shooting as well as she had been the last couple games, we needed someone to kind of come in and replace that, and Hannah really did step up and fill that role today."

The Lady Falcons were up 22-18 at the half with 4:15 to play in the third quarter when their offense sprung to life as their defense began to force a plethora of turnovers by the Lady Tornadoes.

A deep two by Allie Whittington, who led EHS with 20 points, with 6:25 to go in the ball game completed a 20-0 run for the Lady Falcons. Zeigler-Royalton didn't get their first field goal of the second half until there was just 1:15 left in the final quarter of play.

After beginning the season with eight straight losses, Elverado (4-10, 2-1) has now won four of their last six as the team appears to be improving.

"Sometimes as a coach you want it to happen quicker than what it actually is," said Love, "but the more I look back I see that we're starting to get it, it's clicking. It takes time to make progress, I'm proud of where they are right now."

Emma Bigham added 4 points for the Lady Falcons and Kadie Dunmyer, Tori Ehlers and Brianna Tuthill each added 2.