HAGERSTOWN, Md. – The Williamsport-South Hagerstown girls basketball matchup became one big question-and-answer session on Tuesday.
Unfortunately for South Hagerstown, the Rebels left the floor with all the questions.
Fortunately for Williamsport, the Wildcats walked off with a lot of answers.
It became a case of opposites detracting. Williamsport scored the first 10 points of the game and never looked back as the Wildcats methodically rolled to a 56-13 win over the Rebels.
South fell behind early and never recovered.
It was a game between two teams that seemed to be playing well at the end of 2025, but were scuffling since the New Year’s ball dropped.
Williamsport coach Kevin Murphy found a remedy since the Wildcats stubbed their toes before surviving with a two-point win over North Hagerstown.
“Our whole emphasis was defense. We let our defense lead our offense,” Murphy said. “We knew they were going to play zone. Before the North game, we didn’t see many zones. We really practiced hard against a zone. Tonight, we (worked the ball) inside-outside and we got some great shots. Our key has been to give up a good shot to get a great one.”
Meanwhile, South had the bottom drop out after a competitive run over games in December.
“I don’t understand it. Just two weeks ago, we were much more fluid. Much more confident,” said South Hagerstown coach Kevin Meredith. “Not too long ago, we were scoring 30 points a game. We’ve tried to add structure, along with what they were doing previously and for whatever reason, we’ve stagnated.”
Williamsport took two steps forward, while South seemed to take three steps back.
Abby Curry led the Wildcats with 14 points as 13 of the 14 players on roster scored points. Williamsport (10-2) used its halfcourt offense with passes to the lane to set up open outside shots for an eighth straight win, which included the unsettling victory over North.
A week of practice helped the Wildcats find the answer.
“We’ve had some slow starts and we really emphasized in practice. We didn’t play on Friday, so we really had some good practice,” Murphy said. “We took some really quick shots against North, which led us to some troubles defensively.
“Tonight, our emphasis was we can get that first shot at any time. Let’s make some passes and go inside-outside, use the baseline drives and our kids did a great job of executing the game plan, starting right from the beginning, and we stayed on them.”
Williamsport let 14-2 after one quarter and pushed the lead to 28-9 at the half as Arisa Hardy scored six of her eight points in the period.
Meredith acknowledged the Rebels were used to trailing at halftime, but this one was a little different.
Even though the Rebels have lost 12 of 13 games, including the last four in a row, they had been competitive. But since the beginning of the new year, South hasn’t scored more than 25 points in 2026’s first four games.
“We’re making it harder than it really is,” Meredith said. “Our effort was down. The things that we have been working – for whatever reason – they’re not coming to fruition on the court or in the game. I have to get back to the drawing board.”
Williamsport continued to play the team approach in the second half, scoring the first 16 points in the first five minutes, 10 seconds of the third quarter, led by Curry with nine. The 44-9 lead started the running clock, igniting the mercy rule which starts at a 35-point deficit, for the last 12-plus minutes of that game.
South scored the last four points on shots by Kristen Gyamfi and Aniya Freeman to make it 44-13 after three quarters.
Williamsport scored the final 12 points of the game and blanked South in the fourth quarter.
McKenna Murphy backed Curry with nine points, all coming off three 3-pointers, while Hardy had eight and Rileigh Cole added seven points for the Wildcats.
Freeman and Khloe Terralonge had four points each to lead the Rebels. Freeman had seven rebounds and seven steals to go with three blocks.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats got the answers they wanted.
“Tonight, we had 22 made field goals and 19 assists … I can’t complain about that,” Kevin Murphy said. “Our kids did a great job of executing the game plan, starting right from the beginning and we stayed on them. Sometimes you get and big lead like that and kids can kind of let up. We didn’t let up. So, it’s a sign of a team getting better.”
