BLUE ANGEL RALLY FALLS JUST SHORT

Playing before a Senior Night crowd at the Katie Smith Gymnasium in Logan, the Lady Chiefs hustled, muscled, and scrapped their way to a 25-12 halftime lead over the visitors from Gallipolis and then had to hold off a Blue Angel comeback to escape with a hard-earned 38-32 win Thursday evening.

The second quarter was the downfall for GAHS as Logan exploded for a 17-5 advantage. A combination of Logan domination on the boards, out rebounding the Blue Angels 20-7 in the half including a 12-1 advantage on the offensive glass, combined with ten Gallipolis turnovers gave the Lady Chiefs repeated shots at their end, and completely shut down the GAHS offense.

“I really lit ‘em up at the half,” Blue Angel coach Chris Ellcessor said, and it was a completely different GAHS team that took the floor for second half action. The Gallians almost completely shut down Logan on their own offensive glass, and taking better care of the ball began the long road back. Two Jackie Wamsley lay-ups followed by a nice feed down low to Kari James, two Kayla Perry buckets in the paint, capped off by a nice pass to Lindsay Caldwell that she converted for a lay-up, and when the third quarter ended the Blue Angels had clawed to within five at 29-24.

Logan guard Alex Hermann wasted little time in giving notice that there would be no comeback on this night as she opened fourth quarter scoring by draining a long three to make it 32-24 with 7:12 remaining. Once again the Blue Angel defense stiffened, holding Logan scoreless for more than three minutes, and when Caldwell scored on a put-back of a missed shot with 3:47 to go, the Gallians were only down 32-28. Nineteen seconds later Hermann delivered her second dagger of the quarter, another trey, and the 35-28 deficit proved to be insurmountable.

Logan’s Hermann led all scorers with three treys for 9 points, followed by Kathy Kernan and Jessica Harris with 8 each. Kari James, Jackie Wamsley, and Lindsay Caldwell netted 8 apiece for the Blue Angels. Gallia Academy was 15/37 from the field for 40.5%, 2/5 from the free throw line for 40%, pulled down 22 rebounds (Caldwell 9), had 8 assists (Perry 3), and 20 turnovers. The Blue Angels were called for 17 fouls, six of which came in the last minute plus when they were forced to foul. Logan connected on 15/52 from the field (28.8%), 5/14 free throws (35.7%), with 29 rebounds (Harris 11), and 10 turnovers. The Lady Chiefs were whistled 13 times.

With the win Logan improves to 11-8 and 6-3 SEOAL. GAHS falls to 11-8 and 3-6 SEOAL. The Blue Angels finish regular season play at Marietta next Monday evening, and then open sectional tournament play on February 12 at 1:00 pm vs the winner of the Meigs/River Valley game on the campus of the University of Rio Grande.

In the JV prelim, Coach Mike Brace’s little Angels won their fifteenth game of the year against four setbacks in beating Logan 45-39. Jessica Dingess scored all 17 of her game high points in the second half, paving the way for the win. She was supported by Lindsey Niday with 9 and Sarah Cochran’s 8. Krista Hartman led the 8-11 Lady Chiefs with 9.

Score by quarters:
GAHS 7 5 12 8 - 32
Logan 8 17 4 9 - 38

GALLIA ACADEMY Jackie Wamsley 4-0-8, Lindsay Caldwell 3-2/5-8, Brittany Elliott 1-0-2, Kayla Perry 3-0-6, Kari James 4-0-8. TOTALS 15-2/5-32

LOGAN Hermann 3-0-9, Whitney Mosack 2-0-4, Samantha Baughman 1-1/2-3, Collette Bolen 1-0-2, Allison Angle 1-1/4-3, Amy Weiland 0-1/2-1, Kathy Kernen 3-2/2-8, Jessica Harris 4-0/4-8. TOTALS 15-5/14-38

Three point goals: GAHS- none, LOGAN- Hermann 3.