Dover's swarming defense shuts down Wheeling Central Catholic in OVAC victory

DOVER — The Dover High School girls basketball team combined a sterling effort on defense with a big shooting night from the perimeter to roll to a 55-29 win over Wheeling Central Catholic in an OVAC consolation game in the Crimson Tornadoes’ gym Thursday evening.

“We made some shots, and we’ve been trying to emphasize that when we shoot those shots to get the best shot we can find, not just one pass and a chuck,” Dover coach Kyle Dummermuth said. “Make them guard us until we get a wide open one, and I thought that’s what we did tonight.”

With the win, the Tornadoes upped their record to 11-9. Wheeling Central is now 12-6.

Dover’s swarming defense blanketed the Maroon Knights throughout the contest, while the Tornadoes’ offense buried 11 3-pointers in the game. By comparison, Wheeling Central had just one triple in the contest.

“Dover was just really patient on offense,” Wheeling Central coach Roberta Olejasz said. “I think they did a really good job of cutting us up tonight.”

Leading Dover’s offensive barrage from long range was junior guard Morgan Karam, who took game-high scoring honors with 21 points on seven 3-pointers.

“I would say this was probably the most consistent game I’ve been in so far,” said Karam, one of the Tornadoes’ captains. “Tonight, we had multiple people scoring and everybody was hitting their shots. It was just a great team win.”

Complementing Karam in the scorebook was Ava Zobel with eight points, including a triple, while guard Carley Noretto finished with six points on two treys. Ansley Bollon also had six points, Camryn Albaugh finished with five, including a 3, and Hailey Kuecher, Rachel Pfeiffer and Josee Werntz had four points each.

“(Karam) was definitely on, and we had a couple girls that hit some big shots, especially in the second half,” Dummermuth said. “That’s when it’s fun. We’ve tried to emphasize about everybody doing their part. It might not mean 15 or 16 points, it might mean four, but we had all eight of our girls who played in the game score points, and that’s big.”

Added Karam, “This year, the ball movement we’ve had and just finding the open person has been a huge improvement in our game. It’s awesome.”

Wheeling Central was led by its standout front-line player Kaitlyn Blake, who scored 19 of the Maroon Knights’ 29 points in the game.

“The Blake girl is averaging 24 points per game and she’s a real good player,” Dummermuth said. “They lost their point guard (to injury), so without their point guard, they’re a little bit different team, but that’s a solid team and it’s a real good win for us.”

Dover jumped out to a 3-0 lead when Karam swished a 3-pointer at the 6:22 mark of the opening quarter and the Tornadoes never trailed, taking an 8-6 lead after one.

“We guarded them and tried to take away some of their actions,” Dummermuth said of the Tornadoes’ defensive strategy.

Playing tight defense and fronting the Wheeling Central guards, Dover went on to take its biggest lead of the first half when Wertz hit an inside shot, giving the hosts a 17-12 advantage with 45 seconds left before intermission.

Wheeling Central cut the deficit to two points when Blake, who scored nine points in the first half, converted a conventional three-point play as Dover held a 17-15 lead at the break.

The Tornadoes blew the game wide open in the third quarter when they outscored Wheeling Central 20-4 in the frame. Five different Tornadoes scored points in the quarter as the hosts led 37-19 after three.

“We’ve really tried to work the last couple weeks of taking better care of the ball and getting the shot that we want to take,” Dummermuth said. “We feel like when we make somebody sit down and guard, then we can get the shot we want to take.”

Dover took its largest lead of the night at 26 points in fourth quarter when Albaugh drained a 3 with 30 seconds left as the Tornadoes closed out the 55-29 win.

“I thought Dover played really well,” Olejasz said.

The Tornadoes will host the Meadowbrook Colts on Monday.

“They’re a scrappy team, a good team and they’re well-coached,” Dummermuth said of the Colts. “It’s going to be another battle but we get to play it here, so we’re happy about that.”

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Dover girls basketball beats Wheeling Central Catholic