Westminster loses grip on depleted Lady Lions

Before the Augusta Christian Lady Lions even took the floor Monday night at Westminster, they already were down.

The Lady Lions faced their crosstown rival with only eight available players.

On the other side of the gym, Westminster fielded a full 11-girl roster.

Despite being outnumbered, Augusta Christian defeated Westminster 43-30 in a game that saw the Lady Lions lead from start to finish.

"We're all hurt," Augusta Christian girls basketball coach Keith Walton said after the win. "We had to bring up an eighth-grader just to get some depth."

The Lady Lions led 26-15 with a minute left in the third quarter, but Westminster came back on a 9-0 run to pull within two at the 5:59 mark of the fourth quarter.

That's when Walton put eighth-grader Elizabeth Alewine into the game.

Alewine knocked down a free throw, then nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cap a momentum-swinging 12-0 Augusta Christian run.

"That shot that Elizabeth had was huge," Walton said. "No one's expecting an eighth-grader to come off the bench and pull the trigger like that."

While two Lady Lion seniors, Sarah-Beth McKinney and Ashley Troxel, sat out with ankle and back injuries, respectively, senior Jordan Little played despite suffering from flulike symptoms.

Little, the team's leading scorer with 12.8 points per game, left the court several times because of the illness, but returned and scored 10 points to give the Augusta Christian girls their fifth win of the season.

"She's been sick," Walton said. "I knew she would play, but I knew she wouldn't be 100 percent."

Including Little, Augusta Christian used only six players Monday night.

The injury bug might not hang around the Lady Lions much longer. McKinney, the team's leading scorer and rebounder before suffering a severe ankle sprain in the first minute of a game at the Garden City Classic on Dec. 2, is expected to return soon.

"She probably could have gone tonight," Walton said. "We're keeping her out until the tournament at Hilton Head next week. It's a public-school tournament."

The Augusta Christian boys team also faced rival Westminster on Monday night, but came up on the short end of a 64-57 Wildcat win.

Westminster junior Dustin Curry scorched the nets for seven 3-pointers and 29 points, while teammate Max Pink added 18.

Augusta Christian took a 30-24 halftime lead after outscoring Westminster 24-7 in the second quarter. The lead was short-lived, however, as Curry hit four 3-pointers in the third quarter to spark a 13-0 run and give the Wildcats the lead for good.

The Augusta Christian loss was the second of the season from Westminster.

"We played them better than we played them the first time," Lion coach Marty Griffin said of the 48-42 loss to Westminster on Dec. 2. "It's good to play such a well-coached team so early in the season."

Lion junior Josh Whitaker led the team with 20 points, while Nolan Belcher and Fred Auston each added 12 points.

Point guard Kyle Redd aggravated a separated shoulder injury early in the first half of the game. Redd will miss a week's worth of games, but is expected to return for the Lions' road tournament in Hilton Head Island, S.C., beginning Wednesday.