Girls basketball: Fulton tops Thunder with second-half rally

PROPHETSTOWN – For a while, the Fulton vs. West Carroll girls basketball game in the Class 2A Erie-Prophetstown Regional resembled the recently completed points-starved Super Bowl.

The Steamers, however, found the range a bit more in the second half on their way to a 36-27 win against the Thunder on Monday night.

Fulton (10-19) earned the right to take on Bureau Valley in a regional semifinal on Wednesday night.

After shooting a mere 4-for-21 in a first half that ended 11-11, the Steamers were anything but a sure thing to advance.

“West Carroll does a good job of trying to make you play ugly, and we did there for about two quarters, for sure,” Fulton coach Mike Menchaca said. “We went into halftime and decided we had to spread them out a little bit more. If they were going to jam us on cuts on the baseline and in the post, we were going to spread them out, throw longer passes and make them cover some ground.”

The key stretch came 3 minutes into the third quarter when Fulton forward Kearston Norman made her presence felt. She scored just one point in the first half, but went on a personal 8-0 run capped by a coast-to-coast layup off a steal to put the Steamers up 19-13 midway through the third quarter.

“I thought we really needed some energy there,” Norman said. “When we got some steals, it brought some energy, and from there, we just kept it going.”

Fulton got the lead up to as many as 10 points (31-21) after a bucket from Emily Schipper with 6:10 left to play, but West Carroll (10-16) was not done. The Thunder crept to within six points (33-27) after a basket from Madison Haynes with 2:12 on the clock.

A 3-pointer that rimmed out from Madison Magill with 1:50 to go would have put some serious heat on the Steamers. Fulton then hit 3 of 4 free throws in the final 1:43 to salt away the win.

Schipper had a double-double with 15 points and 12 rebounds to pace Fulton, while Norman added nine points and four boards.

McKenna Sullivan and Maddie Meek each had eight points to lead West Carroll. Meek fouled out with her team down 31-23 and 4:26 left in the fourth quarter.