If Wednesday afternoon’s performance is any indication William Monroe’s Ella Weaver has made a leap this offseason.
“I’ve been working a lot over the summer and building a lot of confidence,” Weaver said. “There’s a lot more weight for me to carry this year.”
Carrying it didn’t seem to be a problem Wednesday. Weaver made a shift to the point during the offseason and looked all but unstoppable against Skyline as the Dragons picked up a 61-43 win with Weaver scoring 24 points and 10 rebounds. Particularly when driving the lane, Weaver, who played down low or on the wing a year ago, was a matchup problem for everyone on the Hawks’ roster. She was relentless and finished well at the hoop, battling through contact time and time again.
“Ella’s strength is to attack off the dribble so it just made sense to make that shift,” said Monroe coach Jess Shifflett. “She’s very versatile and we’re more aggressive offensively with that setup.”
Weaver buried a 3-pointer right out of the gate to power a fourth quarter run that allowed the Dragons to expand a five-point lead going into the frame to a comfortable win. Monroe outscored Skyline 19-6 in the fourth, finishing strong after struggling a little out of the gate and trailing 14-11 at the end of the first.
It was an impressive feat to finish the game that well considering the extensive minutes played in particular by Weaver and Morris. Instead of fatigue taking over, the Dragons’ defense was at its best down the stretch.
With Weaver settling in nicely at the point, that allowed Hailey Morris to play her natural role at shooting guard where she notched 14 points and four assists while going 6-for-6 at the line, mostly in the fourth quarter. Morris has been a point guard out of necessity during much of her career, but the shift may create an opportunity for her to become even more of a factor on both ends of the floor. She knocked down a huge 3-pointer early in the second quarter to pull the game even at 14-14.
“She plays best on catch and shoot threes, that’s her bread and butter,” Weaver said. “For me to be able to drive and kick to her, that’s beautiful for us.”
It also opened the door for Chloe Rush to become more of a factor underneath. Rush was aggressive in the paint, cleaning up a number of misses while pulling down 11 rebounds to go with her 13 points in a double double performance. Rush, a junior, benefited from having a year of varsity experience under her belt and even a couple of early fouls couldn’t slow her down.
“I get to put my aggression into it and really go at it,” Rush said. “But fouling early in the game, that kind of pushed me back because I was worried about that.”
Iyanna Carey was her usual sparkplug self in the win too, with four points, four rebounds and four assists including a critical putback in the fourth to push the Dragons’ lead to 51-41 after Avery Shifflett rebounded a missed free throw. That was one of 12 rebounds on the day by the freshman Shifflett.
The Dragons will look to build on the season opening win with a road game against Central Woodstock December 29.
