Waves split with Jackets in non-district affair

The Midway Lady Green Waves completed a season sweep of the Coalfield Lady Yellow Jackets, rallying from a halftime deficit to win 45-43. 

Coalfield’s boys, on the other hand, snapped a three-game losing streak and earned a season sweep of the Green Wave, winning 60-48 at the John Jackson Memorial Gymnasium Tuesday night.

Girls Game

The Lady Waves overcame a slow start on offense and defeated the Lady Jackets for the second time this season.

The Lady Yellow Jackets dynamic freshmen duo of Grace Hensley and Mackenzie Cox combined for eight of the 10 Lady Jacket points in the opening quarter to propel Coalfield to a 10-6 lead of one quarter. 

Alexis Taylor and Abby Bertram each drilled a three-pointer in the first quarter for Midway. 

Freshmen Abby Bertram caught fire in the second quarter, scoring seven of the 12 Lady Waves points to keep the Lady Jacket lead at four. 

Samantha Hamby and Bree Ariaz combined for seven of Coalfield’s 12 second quarter points to give the Lady Jackets a 22-18 halftime lead.

 The third quarter saw  Lady Wave guard Alisa Barger catch fire and lead Midway to a 32-29 lead late in the third quarter. Barger had 10 points in the quarter, but Coalfield’s Natalie Layne scored the last three points of the quarter to knot the score at 32 heading to the fourth quarter.

 If ever there were two teams evenly matched on a single night this was it. Neither team would own a lead bigger than six points, and it appeared down the stretch that Hamby would carry the Lady Jackets to the win. She scored 11 of the Lady Jacket 13 points in the fourth quarter, but the Lady Jackets had turnovers on two of their last three possessions. Those turnovers proved costly as the Lady Waves walked away with 47-45 win.

 Bertram led the Lady Waves with 19 points while Barger added 13. 

Coalfield’s Hamby led all scorers with 22 points.

Midway (47) Bertram 19, Barger 13, Taylor 8, Lewis 4, Tuttle 2,  Whitehead 1. 

Coalfield (45) Hamby 22, Hensley 9, Layne 6, Craig 3, Cox 3, Ariaz 2. 

Boys Game

The Coalfield Yellow Jackets snapped a three-game losing streak and swept the season series from Midway by defeating the Green Wave Tuesday night, 60-48.

The game went nearly three minutes before Midway’s Adam Houser got the scoring started with a put back at the 5:02 mark. Yellow Jacket senior Hayden Ariaz answered with a three-pointer to put the Jackets in front 3-2 with 4:38 left in the opening quarter.

The  remainder of the quarter belonged to Houser and the Green Wave. Midway closed out the quarter on a 8-1 run to lead 10-4 after one quarter. 

Houser pumped in the first eight points for Midway.

Coalfield got their offense on track in the second quarter as sophomore Jason Lee led the Yellow Jackets with six points and four rebounds in the quarter to give Coalfield a 21-20 lead heading to the break.

Midway sophomore Jacob Cawood answered a Jonathon Rainey lay up and the Coalfield lead remained one with 6:45 left in the quarter. The next three minutes was the difference in the game as Lee and Ryan Hill led a 12-0 that took Coalfield to a 41-27 lead after three quarters.

Coalfield done enough damage in the third quarter to prevent Midway from getting any closer than 11 points in the final quarter despite the efforts of Christian Moore. Moore scored 10 in the final quarter, but it was not enough as Coalfield won, 60-48.

Midway was led by Houser and  Moore with 12 points each. 

Caleb Ruffner had seven rebounds for Midway. 

The Yellow Jackets were led by Ariaz with 16 points and four assists. Lee added 11 points and 12 rebounds while Hill had nine points and eight rebounds for Coalfield. 

Midway hosts Rockwood Friday night in a District 3-A contest.

Coalfield (60) Ariaz 16,  Lee 11, Rainey 9,  Hill 9, Johnson 6, Keener 5, Aikens 4.

 Midway (48) Moore 12, Houser 12, Cawood 7, Brummit 6, Davidson 5, Lyle 5, Clower 1.