Memorial pushes last Lady Devils
Dec. 23—The Owensboro High School girls basketball team jumped out to an early lead Thursday afternoon, but Evansville Memorial was too much to overcome down the stretch in a 65-36 loss in the Independence Bank Kentucky vs. Indiana Classic at the Sportscenter.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Lady Devils, who slipped to 8-2 overall.
"We played hard," OHS coach Jansen Locher said afterward. "Shots didn't fall, but we had a good first quarter and then our legs got to us. We had a tough game yesterday against Scott — it was an up-and-down, back-and-forth battle — so I think they came back to haunt us a little bit.
"We just didn't make shots, and when you're playing a good team like that, an undefeated team, if you're not making shots and you're turning the ball over like we did, it's not going to look pretty. But I feel like the girls did play hard."
The Lady Devils led 13-10 at the first break behind six first-quarter points from A'Lyrica Hughes, but the Lady Tigers opened the second frame on a 21-1 run to take a commanding lead and never looked back. The Lady Devils' first field goal of the quarter came on a 3-pointer by Keeley Harris in the final seconds, drawing Owensboro to within 31-17 at intermission.
"I thought LuLu Greer came in and really controlled their ball handlers whenever she had to," Locher said. "She plays a lot bigger than what she is. She looks undersized, but she can really control ball handlers, which gives the other girls a little break not having to go full court the whole time.
"A'Lyrica had a great first quarter of getting to the hoop, we've just got to get some other girls to knock down some shots and stop watching her play and do a little bit more offensively. We can hit shots, we just didn't do it today, but our goal is to be back here at the Sportscenter floor for the regional tournament, hopefully, so we'll take some things from this loss and build from it."
Memorial (11-0), anchored by the bruising duo of 6-footer Sophie Johnson (15 points) and the 5-10 Emily Mattingly (10 points), pushed ahead to a 49-27 lead through three quarters before closing out the victory in the final stanza.
"We knew it was going to be a physical game," Locher said. "We told our girls that, and I thought they handled it well. We probably would've handled it a little bit better had it not come on a back-to-back game, but that's what Christmas time is for.
"We just have to match intensity for four quarters. We did it at times today, but it's got to be more consistent. Some of our girls coming off the bench have got to come in and they've got to match that intensity too. It can't be one or two players, it's got to be the whole team collectively."
Hughes led the Lady Devils with 13 points but was limited after picking up her third foul with 6:07 left in the second quarter.
Avery Kelley finished with 13 points for Memorial.
OHS returns to action Tuesday in the Allen County-Scottsville Lady Invitational of the South.
"We have a lot of pieces, and we're trying to put the puzzle together to make us successful," Locher said. "Right now, we're playing without one of our starters (Unique Carter-Swanagan), so we have to slide some girls in and try to figure that out.
"We're going to improve on our rebounding and improve on our half-court offense and get ready for the second half of the season."
EVANSVILLE MEMORIAL|10 21 18 16 — 65
OWENSBORO|13 4 10 9 — 36
Evansville Memorial (65) — Johnson 15, Kelley 13, Mattingly 10, Browning 8, Bordfeld 5, Smith 5, Herr 4, Kain 4, Burger 1.
Owensboro (36) — Hughes 13, Gibson 8, Harris 3, Moorman 3, Greer 2, Paige 2, Palmer 2, Worth 2, Phillips 1.
