Bishop’s rally falls short in loss to West Stokes
Michael Lindsay | HPE
Bishop McGuinness' Kevin Weckworth drives against West Stokes' Josh Spainhour (3) during Thursday's game at Bishop McGuinness.
The Bishop McGuinness boys were right there with West Stokes at the end. Their last two looks, though, just wouldn’t go down.
The Villains came back from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to lead by two with 31⁄2 minutes left, but West Stokes answered with five straight points to regain the lead and hung on in the final seconds to hand host Bishop a 53-50 loss Thursday.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our effort and execution,” Villains coach Josh Thompson said. “We talked about making some adjustments at halftime, and the kids really did that. I saw some growth from our team tonight, which is really encouraging.”
Kevin Weckworth, who recently eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for his career, scored 25 points to lead Bishop (10-7, 5-6 Northwest 1A/2A), which got two looks to tie from 3 in the final 50 seconds but missed, while Tommy Koesters had 14.
Josh Spainhour had 19 points to lead the Wildcats (15-4, 10-1 NWC), who led 27-24 after a back-and-forth first half before building a 44-36 lead with 7:42 to go. Alston Furr also had 14 and Reid Goodson had 12.
“Spainhour, he’s just a tough player to corral,” Thompson said of the third quarter. “He’s shifty with the ball. And if he gets loose, he’s going to knock down a 3 or a mid-range shot. He hit some big shots; Furr hit some big shots; and we had a hard time keeping Reid Goodson off the boards. He’s long in there and got some key rebounds.”
The Villains, however, answered with a 12-2 run — keyed by two straight baskets by Koesters followed by two straight baskets by Weckworth — to lead 48-46 with 3:34 left.
A couple miscues and missed shots in the final minutes proved the difference. Still, it was a very strong performance throughout by Bishop, Thompson said.
“It’s great against a veteran, well-coached team like West Stokes,” he said. “We’re a relatively young team, and we’ve been kind of nipping at their heels the last two years. Our message to the team before the game was: Let’s be five minutes better than we were last year or even last game. And I thought we were about four minutes better.”
The Villains play again tonight at home against Winston-Salem Prep.
mlindsay@hpe.com
888-3526
@HPEmichael