Allen's huge shooting night sparks Portsmouth's win over Lady Dragons

PROCTORVILLE — When describing the Portsmouth Lady Trojans, they are comprised of many characteristics.

But when you mesh them all together, they're an impressive team.

All those characteristics were on display on Saturday night, as the Lady Trojans used a dominant second quarter to ignite their 60-40 win over the Fairland Lady Dragons and avenge their early season loss in front of a packed crowd at the Carl York Center.

""That second quarter reflected our type of girls," said Portsmouth coach Amy Hughes. "We're just a defensive team. we're tough, we're quick, we're fast, we're mean, we're athletic, we jump well. I mean, it's nothing I did, it's all them. It's all their skills.. We just put them in the right spot."

Portsmouth wraps up the regular season with a 17-4 overall record, while the Lady Dragons finish with an 18-4 mark. Both teams finish 13-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference and clinch another co-championship, marking the second time in three year's that the two teams have tied for first place. Portsmouth won the league outright last season.

Coming into the game, the Lady Trojans had suffered a tough road losses to a pair of Kentucky powerhouses. However, Hughes felt those games made a huge difference in getting the team to refocus and correct their mistakes ahead of this showdown.

"I hate saying a loss is good, but those losses were definitely worth it. I felt like we would've let some things slip through the cracks. We really fixed some things and we still have some things to work on."

Salem Allen, the younger sister of Ohio University commit Sienna, would be the one to headline the Lady Trojans. The sophomore was deadly from long range, hitting 6 shots from behind the arc and finishing with a game-high 20 points. Keke Woods finished the night with 15 points, 6 steals and 3 assists.

"(Salem) can play like that all the time," said Hughes. "I think sometimes she's too unselfish but she can do that any given night."

Sienna Allen scored 14 points, pulled down 8 boards and 3 assists. The senior also made history in the win, becoming Portsmouth's all-time leading scorer with 1,689 points. The previous record holder was Ky're Allison, who set the record back in the 2015-16 season.

Portsmouth jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead and never trailed in the game. However, the game stayed even through most of the first with Fairland getting 3-pointers from Addyson Cornell and Bailey Russell to keep the lead hovering around one-score.

It wasn't until the beginning of the second quarter when the Lady Trojans started to widen their lead at the, starting with a steal from Woods and score by Sienna Allen.

Salem Allen followed with a 3-pointer and Sienna Allen had a turnaround jumper on the baseline to spark a 17-2 run.

Fairland was finally able to stop the run when Rylee Russel nailed a 3-pointer from the wing and ignite a 9-0 run for the Lady Dragons to end the half.

The freshman guard also capped off the run with her third score from behind the arc as time expired and cut Portsmouth's lead down to 32-21 at the break.

Portsmouth continued to pull away in the second half as Woods scored 5 points during the third quarter to help the Lady Trojans outscore Fairland 11-6 in the frame.

In the fourth, it was more of Salem Allen as she hit three more from downtown and Portsmouth coasted their way to victory.

The Lady Dragons had just one player reach double figures, as Godby finished with 14 points, 3 steals and a pair of blocked shots. Godby also reached a scoring milestone during the second quarter, scoring her 1,000th point.

Fairland coach Jon Buchanan was disappointed with the outcome of tonight, but hopes the loss will lead to something bigger come tournament time.

"We've got a really good team and have an opportunity to make a run. We talked about when we won at Portsmouth, that our goal is to beat them the last time we play them and that third game could be for a state title. So hopefully starting Wednesday when the tournament starts, we'll have some fire about us."

Portsmouth 15 17   11   17  =  60

Fairland 10   11    6   13  =  40

PORTSMOUTH (4-2, 3-1): Sienna Allen 3 1 5-6 14, Salem Allen 0 6 2-4 20, Keke Woods 6 0 3-6 15, Hayven Carter 3 0 1-1 7, Bry Shannon 1 0 0-0 2, K.K. Mays 0 0 2-2 2, Sky Mays 0 0 0-0 0, Abi Whitt 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 7 13-19 60. Rebounds: 29 (Si. Allen 8, Woods 6). Assists: 7 (Si. Allen 3, Woods 3). Steals: 9 (Woods 6, K. Mays 2). Blocks: 3 (Si. Allen 2, Carter 1). Turnovers: 7. Fouls: 21. Fouled out: Bry Shannon (4th, 0:34).

FAIRLAND (5-0, 5-0): Taegan Leep 0 0 0-0 0, Isa Taliaferro 0 0 0-0 0, Addyson Cornell 2 2 1-2 6, Addison Godby 5 0 4-15 14, Rylee Russell 0 2 0-0 6, Haley Lykins 0 0 0-0 0, Stella Whitley 0 0 0-0 0, Lola Donahue 1 0 2-2 4, Kiana Miller 1 1 2-4 7, Bailey Russell 0 1 0-0 3. Totals: 8 5 9-25 40. Rebounds: 24 (Russell 5). Assists: 2. Steals: 4 (Godby 3, Taliaferro). Blocks: 2 (Godby 2). Turnovers: 10. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: None.