Wilson sent home by Rams

STRASBURG — It’s an abiding hope of coaches that their players will give their best effort in key contests.

That hope was realized Tuesday night for the Strasburg Rams as junior guard Jaclyn Ayers scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for a double-double that spelled big trouble for the Wilson Memorial Green Hornets.

The Rams won convincingly, 66-43, in their Region B, Division 2 quarterfinal.

“Tonight was just a pushin’ game for us,” Ayers said. “We’ve never gotten beyond this round before, so that was a big motivator. [The changing defenses] didn’t matter to us because we’ve been practicing different stuff all week.”

The Rams scored the first two field goals of the game, then the Green Hornets mounted a 9-0 run as Deidre Deacon stroked a field goal and a 3-pointer, Meg Emerson scored on a put-back and Dinah Jones made a layup.

Strasburg gave a loud answer with a 14-0 run on Ayers’ second field goal and a conventional 3 pointer off a steal, a bucket by senior Bethany Doman, and two field goals and Strasburg’s only three-pointer on the night from junior Jenna Smoot to close out the quarter with a 19-8 lead.

That Rams kept pushing the accelerator in the second quarter, which was owned by Ayers who poured in 14 more points on six field goals and two free throws as Strasburg gained a 39-21 halftime lead.

Doman contributed 17 points on 7-of-8 from the field.

“As a senior, I wanted to be a leader and play my last game at home and play my best game,” Doman said. “So I just went out hard and just did whatever I could — I wanted to take it to ‘em.”

The only bright spot for the Green Hornets was taking the third quarter, 17-12 , led by Mariah Taylor with two field goals and two free throws, while Emerson and Mary Kate Sullivan scored four each.

Ayers and Doman added four points each to their output, while Smoot and Gabe Giersch each contributed a bucket, for a 51-38 Rams lead at the end of frame.

Strasburg slammed the door on Wilson Memorial in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Green Hornets 15-5, built on five consecutive layups — two by Giersch, and one each by Ayers, Smoot and Doman.

Wilson Memorial went 3-for-4 from the foul line to make it 61-43 with 2:54 to go, answered by the Rams going 3-for-6 form the charity stripe. Although the Rams were stalling, senior Corissa Alsberry couldn’t pass up her only scoring opportunity, and sank a field goal with two seconds left to arrive at the final score.

“At the end of the first half, we started to hammer the ball inside and took advantage of what was working well,”