GIRLS BASKETBALL: Lady Falcons knock off Shawnee behind Whittington's double-double

Behind a double-double from freshman Allie Whittington, Elverado took charge early against Shawnee and went on to win 45-30 in Thursday night's home SEC conference game for the Lady Falcons in Elkville.

Whittington scored 8 points in the first quarter, helping the Lady Falcons build a 15-8 lead through the first 8 minutes of action.

But it was the second quarter where Elverado put the game away. Five different Lady Falcons scored in the period, during which EHS outscored Shawnee 13-3 to take a 28-11 lead into the break.

"The game plan was to jump on them early," said Elverado head coach Rasheeda Love. "We went down to Shawnee last year, and they only had about six players, but they played really tough and really hard. At the end of the ball game, they only two players left on the floor. Three fouled out, one got hurt, and we still only won by two points - with Cheyenne Abbadusky."

"That was one of those games that kind of haunt you, like 'let's not ever let that happen again.' I reminded the returners where we were last year, and said don't let their numbers fool you. Let's take care of business early."

The Lady Reds got no closer than 14 down in the second half. The Lady Falcons' lead ballooned to as high as 23 following a 7-0 run in the fourth quarter, capped off by a stick-back bucket from Tori Ehlers with 2:07 to play. Elverado's bench came in to finish off Shawnee from that point on.

"A lot of the teams in our conference only have 6, 7, 8 players," Love said. "So it was good to get some of the kids that don't play much varsity some time, because we're not playing a lot of j-v games right now."

Allie Whittington finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, both of which led Elverado. Emma Bigham added 7 points, Hannah Alstat had 6, Brooke Whittington and Ehlers each had 4, Kennedy Kimmel and Brianna Tuthill both finished with 2.

Ehlers and Tuthill each grabbed 7 rebounds. Alstat wound up with 6 steals.

The Lady Falcons (3-10, 2-1) are on the road Monday at Zeigler-Royalton.