photo by Patty Ingalls

New Era for Zizzer Girls Basketball looks good

It is a new era of Lady Zizzer Basketball Rest assured, Zizzer fans -- all is well.
 
The girls’ basketball team in West Plains has been good for a long, long time. Legendary Coach Scott Womack retired last spring after a 33-year career as girls’ head coach. Womack built the program up from the dirt. He won all the coaching honors possible including induction into the Missouri Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in 2019. He coached the Lady Zizzers to all manner of championships -- most importantly two State Championships in 1998 and 2022.
 
That leaves big shoes to fill.
 
It is a good thing new head Coach Christy Otter has big feet!
 
Maybe she doesn’t -- but Otter knows basketball. Back when she was Christy Grimes, she played basketball at nearby Thayer and was a point guard for a year in college at Crowder College. She was known as Coach Grimes when she coached as a graduate assistant at what is now Missouri State and then in the Springfield public schools. Her name changed after she met and married her husband, Jason Otter, at a basketball training camp. Coach Christy Otter is a co-owner and administrator of the basketball training company, OtterBasketball.
 
“I am loving coaching again!” said Coach Otter. “It has been a while since I have been on the sideline, but kids haven't changed. They want to meet the expectations, and they want to win! I'm blessed to get to coach these girls.”
 
The Lady Zizzers took the lead over Glendale with three minutes left in the first quarter and never looked back. A majority of the Zizzer points were scored in a fast transition offense that was pushed from the elite ball-handling skills of freshman point guard Ainsley McWilliams.
 
By halftime, the Zizzers were up by ten points, 37-27, and looked balanced with five different Zizzers scoring from behind the three-point line. Freshman sensation Gillian Green shot three 3-pointers in the first half alone, racking up 15 points in the first half.
 
Glendale could not get their shots to fall in the second half and the Zizzers had way too much offense with seven players scoring.  Leading all scorers on the night was Gillian Green with 23 points, Shaylee Peterson- 12 points, Ainsley McWilliams had three 3-pointers for 9 points, Zoe Scharnhorst- 7 points, Zoe Schrubb- 5 points, Ashley Culton put up 4 points, and Lucy Hafer scored 2 points. The Zizzers won 62-49.
 
The Lady Zizzers are 3-3 on the season and will host Ozark on December 19.
 
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