WELLS – However you look at it, Alison Furness of Wells met the playoff challenge.

Furness had 21 points and 16 rebounds Wednesday night as the sixth-seeded Warriors applied the pressure in the fourth quarter and rolled to a 50-33 Western Class B preliminary win over 11th-ranked Freeport.

Wells (14-5) will meet third-ranked Greely (15-3) in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Portland Expo. Wells won their only meeting, 49-43 in the regular-season opener.

Furness outdueled Nina Davenport, who scored a team-high 16 points for Freeport.

“Nina’s a great player and I’m sure before they’re through they’ll have some legendary battles,” Wells Coach Don Abbott said, “but I felt tonight Alison was the best player in the gym. She’s a good rebounder normally. Tonight she was a great rebounder. I think she took it as a personal challenge.”

“My coaches see it like that a little,” Furness said, “but I feel it’s team versus team all the time. Me and my girls.”

Furness definitely had more support. Mariyah Heath scored 10 key points and was another force on the glass.

In front of a large, vocal, bipartisan crowd, the Wells defense pressured full court the whole game and held Freeport (9-10) to 14-of-54 shooting, including a counter-productive 0 of 16 on 3-pointers to keep the Falcon fans from erupting.

“Three-point style basketball is not Freeport-style basketball,” Freeport Coach Jen Chon said, “but when you’re struggling offensively like we were, I feel we tend to force shots up.”

Wells started fast with Furness scoring 12 first-quarter points on a variety of cuts, catches and shots within 10 feet.

Wells pushed a 12-5 first-quarter lead to 17-6 when Furness sat down. While her break was only a minute long, it seemed to dull the Warriors’ momentum.

Freeport closed the quarter with an 11-2 run, with Alexandra Micah scoring twice on gritty offensive rebounds and reserve Hannah Chase adding two buckets.

Davenport, harassed into a 2-of-12 shooting first half, made all four of her shots in the third quarter and scored all nine of Freeport’s points. Wells, which beat Freeport twice in the regular season, led 31-26 entering the fourth.

Coming out of the break, the Warriors found Heath in the lane for a well-executed bucket, forced a quick turnover, then got the game’s only 3-pointer from Jeni Wallingford to push the lead to 36-26.

Wells wound up with a 19-7 edge in the final period.

“(Heath) made that layup off the inbound and that really set the tone for the quarter,” Abbott said. “And then just the defensive intensity we finished the ballgame with, contesting every pass, every dribble.”

 

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