By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
MONTCALM — Greater Beckley Christian School had the height on Monday evening. Montcalm countered with spunk.
Spunk won.
The under-sized Lady Generals survived a sloppy performance and fought off the Crusaders’ rallies to take a 40-36 victory and improve to 5-1 on the season.
The visitors tied the contest a couple of times in the first half, but Montcalm was able to take a 24-15 lead into halftime.
Greater Beckley (2-4) put together a 9-2 run coming out of intermission, forcing five Montcalm turnovers, to cut their deficit to 26-24, but Heather Nicewander hit a triple from the key for the Lady Generals to spark a 7-0 run to end the quarter.
A 3-pointer by the Crusaders’ Karlee Smith with 6:07 left trimmed Montcalm’s lead to 33-30, but the visitors then went more than four minutes without a point, while Taylor Dunford sank a couple of field goals to establish a seven-point lead.
A putback by Lydia Jordan and Jana Lehman’s two free throws again cut the margin to three points, 39-36, with 51 seconds to go.
Allison Blevins added the final point on a free throw. Stormy Carver blocked a Greater Beckley field-goal try with 12.9 seconds on the clock and Nicewander came down with the game’s final defensive rebound to decide the game.
“We blew a decent lead, playing sloppy,” said Montcalm head coach Cindy Havens. “We had cut our turnovers down over the past several games, but it didn’t show tonight.”
Carver picked up three fouls in the first half and sat for portions of the game, making Greater Beckley’s height advantage even more pronounced.
Havens said, “We like to play man-to-man, but with (Greater Beckley’s) height, we mostly used that 1-3-1 zone. It worked for us, but it wasn’t the greatest defensive effort.”
Dunford had all four of her field goals in the second half.
“Taylor Dunford was playing really well,” Havens said. “Really aggressive. ... She came through with a lot of key plays and did a good job.”
Lauren Smith had a double-double for Greater Beckley with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Lehman and Brooke Daniels had 10 rebounds each.
Crusaders head coach Doug Lehman said, “The turnovers were one of the keys tonight. We might get a steal, but then we’d throw it away.”
With starter Brooke Matheny out, the coach said, “We’ve got a lot of sophomores out there. The game experience definitely makes a big difference.”
Montcalm travels to Mount View on Dec. 29.
— Contact Tom Bone at
tbone@bdtonline.com

At Montcalm High School
GREATER BECKLEY CHRISTIAN (2-4)
Karlee Smith 1 1-2 4, Jana Lehman 1 2-5 4, Abby Hill 1 0-0 2, Brooke Daniels 3 0-0 6, Lydia Jordan 2 0-2 5, Lauren Smith 7 1-2 15. Totals 15 5-13 36.
MONTCALM (5-1)
Savanna Bailey 1 0-0 2, Allison Blevins 4 1-2 9, Heather Nicewander 4 1-1 10, Hannah Alexander 1 0-0 3, Taylor Dunford 4 2-2 10, Stormy Carver 3 0-0 6. Totals 17 4-5 40.
Greater Beckley............8 7 9 12 — 36
Montcalm....................12 12 9 7 — 40
3-point goals — GBCC 2 (K.Smith 1, Jordan 1); MHS 2 (Nicewander 1, Alexander 1).