As usual, Alexis Hess steps up for Fleetwood in tourney opener
By Sean McBryan — MikeDragoSports.com correspondent
HERSHEY — Fleetwood’s girls basketball team faced a 2-3 zone for the first time all season and saw its lead dwindle to two points against a winless and suddenly scrappy opponent heading to the fourth quarter Wednesday.
It felt like a trap game for the Tigers; that’s when you look to your best player to take over the game. The Tigers have an elite one in Alexis Hess.
The Kansas State commit scored eight of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter to help Fleetwood pull away for a 39-27 victory over Hershey in the opening round of the Trojans Holiday Tournament.
The Tigers face Middletown in the championship game Thursday at 7:30.
Hess’ statline in the fourth quarter looked like this: Eight points, three rebounds, three steals. Not bad for a high school player in an entire game. The 6-1 guard finished with 24 points, 19 rebounds, three assists, five steals, and a block.
It took a while for Hess to get out of the holiday lull: She missed six of her first seven shots. She adapted her game and took what the defense gave her in order to help her team win.
“Even if I have a rough start I know as a basketball player to just keep shooting,” Hess said. “I know my capabilities. Even if I miss some shots, I can get other opportunities for my teammates and get myself going in other aspects.”
Rebounding is one of those other aspects; Hess collected 15 defensive boards and four off the offensive glass. That total becomes even more impressive knowing she handled the ball for the majority of the game and led the team in assists. Defensively, she had a team-high in steals as the Tigers forced 17 turnovers.
Second-leading scorer Haley Wojciechowski had eight points to go along with 15 rebounds and two steals for the Tigers. Sophia Barrell-Kobryn and Morgan Koehler each had three steals.
“I feel like we picked up the defensive intensity and communicated,” Hess said. “We saw it was a close game so we just knew if we took care of everything on the defensive end we would be able to get stops and have the opportunity to win.”
The Tigers (5-2) jumped out to a 10-4 lead at the end of the first quarter and took a 20-8 lead into halftime. The Trojans (0-7) came out with intensity in the third and outscored Fleetwood 16-6 to cut the lead to two before the Tigers pulled away in the third.
Hess and the Tigers know the importance of non-league wins all too well after missing out on the Berks and District 3 playoffs last season due to their power rating. Fleetwood currently sits at No. 9 in the unofficial District 3 Class 4A power ratings; the top 10 qualify.
Lauren Richards had eight points to lead Hershey, which will face Gov. Mifflin in the consolation game Thursday at 6.
Middletown 45, Gov. Mifflin 40
In Wednesday’s opener at Hershey, Addie Huber had 17 points and eight rebounds to lead the young Blue Raiders (7-2) over the Mustangs (2-6).
Middletown starts three freshmen and Huber, a sophomore. Freshman Jayla Koser had eight points and 11 rebounds and should start getting on college radars as the season progresses. Freshman Emma Cleland had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Anyah Ortiz led Mifflin with 16 points and eight rebounds. The Mustangs trailed by five at the end of the first quarter and by four at halftime before making a run to tie it at 32-32 heading into the fourth.
Huber had six of her 17 in the final quarter to drop the Mustangs, who continue to navigate the loss of 3-point sniper Taylor Koenig. Koenig, a junior, had a knee procedure during the offseason and had been wearing a knee brace, which wasn’t present Wednesday.
That’s good news for the defending Berks champion Mustangs; they’ve hit only 28 3s through eight games At this point last season they had 57.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Fleetwood | 10 | 10 | 6 | 13 | 39 |
| Hershey | 4 | 4 | 16 | 3 | 27 |
| Tigers (5-2) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Barrell-Kobryn | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Miller | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Wojciechowski | 3-10 | 2-5 | 0-4 | 0 | 15 | 8 |
| Koehler | 1-10 | 1-2 | 0-3 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Hess | 8-23 | 5-6 | 3-11 | 3 | 19 | 24 |
| Findon | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Hilburt | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bender | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 14-52 | 8-13 | 3-19 | 7 | 46-50 | 39 |
| Trojans (0-7) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Yazinski | 1-7 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Richards | 4-9 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 1 | 5 | 8 |
| Ober | 0-1 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Rodriguez | 3-9 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 7 | 6 |
| Weiler-Timmins | 2-8 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Carlson | 0-4 | 3-3 | 0-3 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Perry | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Ruff | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Gould | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Totals | 11-40 | 5-10 | 0-10 | 3 | 25-27 | 27 |
Turnovers: Fleetwood 14, Hershey 17.