Roxana Shells at EAWR Oilers Boys Basketball
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ROXANA – The ‘Backyard Rivalry’ went to the home team Friday night as the Roxana Shells hosted the East Alton-Wood River Oilers in girls basketball action.
It was a night when a record was broken, and a coach recognized as a back-and-forth game went down to the wire, with Roxana’s Daisy Daugherty knocking down two huge free throws with 2.6 seconds left to send her team ahead to the final score of 47-46.
During the game she knocked down four three-pointers, ending the night with a game-high 24 points. She set the record for most threes in a season, breaking the previous record of 58, now sitting with 61.
She also nears the 1,000-point mark in her career as a junior as those 24 points took her career total to 985. She has the chance to do that inside Wood River’s Memorial Gym on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 4 p.m. against Winchester-West Central.
If not on Saturday, it will likely happen on Monday when the Shells host Maryville Christian at 7:30 p.m. before closing their regular season against Columbia on Thursday, Feb. 13.
The Lady Oilers and Shells played at 6 p.m. before the boys rivalry game at 7:30 p.m. inside a packed Larry Milazzo Gym Friday night.
“It’s up there no doubt,” Roxana head coach Mike Arbuthnot said about the rivalry. “Wood River-Roxana, no matter what the records are of the teams, if they’re good or they’re bad, you know it’s going to be a battle.”
And it was.
The teams went blow for blow all game with multiple lead changes throughout.
The Oilers jumped out to a 3-1 lead thanks to a basket and a single free throw from Kaylynn Buttry before a three-pointer from Roxana’s Ava Cherry took the lead.
Buttry put EAWR right back ahead with another basket as the Oilers closed the quarter on a 9-5 run to lead 12- 9 after the first quarter.
Wood River opened that lead some more to 16-11 before the Shells ended the first half on a nine-point run.
It was kickstarted by Daugherty’s three-pointer, a free throw and a basket from Tatum Shaw, and then the same from Daugherty to take a 20-16 halftime lead.
The Oilers outscored Roxana 18-10 in the third quarter though to flip the script and go back ahead 34-30. The teams would trade the lead seven times in the fourth.
Daugherty opened the final quarter with a basket-and-one before a triple from Josie Brannon took the lead at 36-34. Wood River’s Lily Tretter scored a basket and then sank one-of-two foul shots to go ahead 37-36.
A basket from Cherry was cancelled out by two free throws from Tretter and the Oilers still led 39-38. Wood River would come out of a timeout and a Jordan Ealey basket put them ahead 43-40 with under two minutes remaining.
Back-to-back baskets from Leah Newton and Shaw as well as a free throw from Cherry took a 45-43 lead for the Shells before Milla Legette drilled a go-ahead triple to lead 46-45 with time winding down.
The Shells called a timeout with 11.4 seconds left and a sideline inbound incoming. The ball was thrown in to Daugherty who was then fouled with 2.6 seconds remaining. She sank both foul shots to put her team ahead for the final time at 47-46.
“She kind of took the game over when we needed her to,” Arbuthnot said on Daugherty. “Things that we’ve been trying to stress to her, getting to the foul line. She also hit some big shots. And that’s what Daisy does.”
After the game, it was announced that Arbuthnot was becoming the 10th member of the Shells Athletic Hall of Fame. Friday night was his 228th win with the Shells as he enters his third stint coaching Roxana.
Daugherty was the only double-digit scorer for the Shells. Cherry had seven points while Brannon and Shaw each had five. The Shells improved to 13-15.
Tretter and Buttry each had 14 points, Ealey had nine and Legette had eight. The Oilers fall to 9-18.
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