Cougars pounce on Waynesboro

The Stuarts Draft Cougars forced 27 Little Giant turnovers and limited Waynesboro to a 19 percent shooting clip in a 60-19 trouncing on Wednesday night.

The Little Giants found every shot contested and were not able to penetrate the Cougar defense in falling to 2-13 overall.

The Cougars (14-3, 9-1 Shenandoah District) jumped out to an 18-2 lead as Kailey Sitzberger scored all eight of her points in the opening frame.

After Waynesboro’s Destynie Martz hit two free throws at the 1:02 mark of the first quarter, Waynesboro did not hit the scoreboard again until a Martz layup with 2:17 left in the half — a seven-minute scoring drought.

And with a 33-10 halftime bulge, the Cougars stormed out of the locker room and outscored the visitors 22-2 in the third quarter to put the game out of reach. Katelyn Bergey hit three buckets and pulled down six of her team-high seven rebounds in the quarter.

"We talked about coming out and playing with focus and just letting the score be what the score was and just go out and play basketball," Cougar coach Jason Kirby said about what he told his squad at the half.

Holding Waynesboro to just 12 points through the first three quarters pleased Kirby.

"We had a hard practice Monday and all we worked on was defense," he said. "Because I wasn’t very pleased with the defense we played last week. We’ve played much better defense in our last two games."

Both teams substituted liberally in the final frame, as Stuarts Draft finished off the 41-point win.

Waynesboro’s Martz paced the Little Giants with nine points.

"Offense is something we’ve been struggling with all season," Waynesboro coach James Eavey said. "We’ve been shooting a lot more — and we’re getting the looks — but the shots aren’t falling for us."

The Little Giants hit just 2-of-15 shots before the half and were 3-of-9 from the charity stripe over the first 16 minutes. The Cougars converted the 14 first-half turnovers into 10 points.

"We just find ourselves in a hole and we can’t get out," Eavey said. "That’s the way it’s been all season."

Morgan Holbert scored on a variety of shots to lead the Cougars with a game-high 14 points. Mayzie Lewis and Bergey added 10 each.

Both teams return to district play on Friday, as Waynesboro hosts Robert E. Lee and Draft travels to Riverheads.