By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

NAYLOR - A running clock is becoming the norm for the Lady Bearcats this season; throughout their now 11 game win streak, eight of the contests have had the ‘mercy clock’ running in the fourth quarter, and it was no different on Monday night when the Lady ‘Cats took on the Naylor Lady Eagles.

A double-double from Brittany Harris (20 points, 16 boards) and double-digit efforts from Paige Patterson and Alison Jarrell were enough to help the Lady ‘Cats ground the Eagles in the 63-21 victory.

“I thought we did a really good job defensively. Offensively, we missed a lot of perimeter shots; I think we were five for 20 at the three point line tonight,” LBB head coach Chad Allen said. “We didn’t shoot the ball that well from the perimeter, but I thought Paige and Brittany did really good in our inside game. They did a really good job of sealing off the paint and wanting the ball, especially in the second half.”

“At one point, she had more rebounds than she had points,” Allen said of Harris‘ big night on the glass. “Then, she turned it on offensively and really sealed and wanted the ball.”

The Lady ‘Cats were dominant on the glass throughout the contest, and out-rebounded the Eagles by a 36-15 margin. 38 of the ‘Cats‘ 63 points came from the paint, but Allen noted that pounding the ball inside wasn’t a big part of the game-plan heading into the contest.


“We really made the adjustment at halftime; we took quite a few perimeter shots there in the first half and weren’t really knocking them down,” Allen said. “We wanted to try to pound it inside in the second half, and Paige and Brittany did a great job of sealing inside and wanting the ball, and our guards did a good job of getting the ball in there to them.”

The Lady ‘Cats jumped out to a 11-2 lead at the 2:55 mark, aided by steals from Erika Cobb, Jarrell, and Harris in the first quarter. The Tigers quickly put up four unanswered points, but the Lady ‘Cats responded and took a 15-6 lead at the end of the opening frame.

Patterson recorded a block in the early second quarter, and Jarrell knocked down treys on back-to-back possessions to put the Lady ‘Cats up 34-8 at the half.

Naylor had its most productive offensive effort in the third quarter, where the put up nine points. Andrea Sullivan drained a three early in the frame, but Jarrell quickly responded with her third three of the contest. A three point play from Patterson pushed the lead to 49-17 at the end of the third.

Mollie Whitehead and Patterson both picked up their fourth fouls in the first minute of the final quarter, but the 'Cats maintained at least a 34 point lead throughout the forth quarter for a 63-21 victory, extending their streak to 11 games.

Allen noted the difficulties of keeping a team mentally ‘in the game’ during a contest like this, but said his squad usually does a good job of maintaining their focus.

“We tell them to keep on playing; we’re going to have to be able to play for four quarters, especially when it comes to the playoffs,” he said. “We’ve gotta keep on playing, and playing hard. The girls have really done that, even tonight.”


The Lady ‘Cats will be in action again on Thursday night, when they travel to Portageville to face the Bulldogs.

“[Portageville is] a little down this year, but hopefully we’ll still get in there and get after it,” Allen said. “We definitely don’t need to have any letdowns. We need to get after it and play hard every game.”

Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. on Thursday.

Editor’s Note: Tonight’s double-double was Harris’ seventh of the season.

By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

The Lady Bearcats are on their way to another great season with a young team, and the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association is beginning to take notice.

In the second straight season without a senior starter, the Lady Bearcats are currently sporting an 11-2 record and are in the middle of a 10 game winning streak. In the most recent MBCA poll - including games through Jan. 8 - the Lady ‘Cats earned the No. 6 ranking in the state among Class 4 teams.

In the No. 5 slot is Miller Career Academy; MCA handed the Lady ‘Cats their first loss in their third game of the season in the Farmington Invitational Tournament. The Phoenix did exactly what they needed to do in the 50-33 win: they dominated the paint, holding LBB’s one-two punch of Brittany Harris and Paige Patterson to just nine combined points and didn’t give the Lady ‘Cats any uncontested shots on the perimeter.

LBB’s only other loss on the season came at home against the Jackson Lady Indians. The Lady ‘Cats held a 23-19 halftime lead against the Tribe, but a second-half offensive surge proved too much as the Indians took home a 45-38 victory.

Two of the Lady Bearcats’ most impressive wins have come against the Kennett Lady Indians, who are ranked No. 4 in Class 3 and sport a 13-2 record. The ‘Cats handed the Tribe both of their losses on the season; a 69-45 contest in the finals of the Lady Royals Christmas Classic and a 56-26 decision last week in the Bearcat Event Center.

The only other currently ranked team on the Lady ‘Cats’ schedule is Meadow Heights, ranked No. 9 in Class 2. The Lady ‘Cats and Lady Panthers are set to meet on January 31 in the Bearcat Event Center.

For the full list of State-Ranked teams, click here.

EASTON, Pa. - Bucknell used a 9-2 run to start the second half and never looked back, winning 79-65 over Lafayette on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center. Seth Hinrichs tied his career high with a team-best 17 points, but it wasn't enough to offset Mike Muscala's 27-point effort for the Bison.

With 11:15 showing on the first half clock, Muscala misfired on a jumper that Ryan Willen saved to Tony Johnson on the Leopards' baseline. Johnson then found Hinrichs in transition for a three-pointer, making the score 14-13 in favor of the Bison. Willen's rebound to spark the basket was the 500th of his career, putting him in a class of 13 players with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in their Lafayette careers.

Aside from Jim Mower's layup to open the game, Bucknell (13-6, 3-0) controlled the action in the first half, led by Muscala, the reigning Patriot League Player of the Year, who scored 19 points in the opening 20 minutes. Lafayette (7-11, 2-1) went into the locker room trailing 34-30 as the team shot 5-of-8 from beyond the arc, including a pair of threes from Hinrichs and Levi Giese.

Bucknell scored nine of the first 11 points after halftime to take its largest lead of the game to that point, 43-32, prompting a Lafayette timeout. Mower's drive down the center of the lane for a three-point play resulted from the timeout, but Joe Willman answered with an 18-footer on the other end.

Mower's three assisted by Joey Ptasinski at 12:31 cut the deficit to seven (49-42) but Bucknell wouldn't allow Lafayette to get any closer over the next six minutes of action, holding at least an eight-point lead for a majority of the stretch.

Trailing by 14, Johnson's corner triple cut the deficit to 66-55 with 5:55 remaining, but Cameron Ayers connected from outside on the next trip for three of his 11 points to retake a 14-point lead. As a team the Bison shot 57 percent from the field and were 14-of-14 from the stripe. Lafayette shot 46 percent in the game, but was outrebounded 34-18.The Leopards' recorded a season-low six turnovers.

Willen and Mower were the other two Lafayette players in double figures, scoring 14 and 10 points, respectively.

Lafayette hits the road on Thursday, when it travels to Worcester, Mass. to play Holy Cross at 7 p.m. The game will nationally televised on CBS Sports Network (DirecTV 613, DISH Network 152) and GoLeopards.com will carry an audio-only broadcast.

Click here for a full breakdown of the game's stats!

PARKVILLE - The Owls held a comfortable lead for most of Saturday's contest, but it came down to a 10-minute stretch at the end of the game as the William Woods snatched a 61-58 win over Park. Blake French (St. Charles, Mo.) led the charge for WWU, racking 4-of-5 from distance en route to a 14-point outing.

Although the offense took a bit to get rolling, WWU took care of the business on the defensive end, holding Park to just one field goal in the first ten minutes of the contest to take a 17-5 lead.

A short cold spell for the Owls allowed Park to narrow the gap to 21-12 with just under eight to go, but a quick seven-point turn pushed the lead out to 16. Miranda Loesch (Lohman, Mo.) drew a foul, but missed her second free throw. A charging Andrews picked up the offensive rebound and finished off the second-chance possession with a three from the left wing. The Owls forced a turnover, and Katie Scherder (Bowling Green, Mo.) racked a triple to push the WWU lead to 28-12 with 5:40 on the clock.

Park was able to narrow the gap down the stretch, but the Owls took a 32-22 lead into the halftime break.

Despite a pair of quick buckets, both teams got rolling a bit slowly out of the break, with the Owls pushing to a 41-28 lead with 15:00 to go.

The Pirates stepped into a full-court press, mounting a 19-9 run to pull within three with just under seven minutes to play. The Owls broke the press with a long-range bomb to Andrews with 6:40, but the Pirates were able to respond and a steal and a fast-break bucket by Oasha White put Park in front 54-52 with 4:58 to go.

With the Owls trailing for the first time since the first minute of the game, Loesch responded with a jumper in the lane, but Park racked a bucket on the next possession and forced a shot clock violation on the Owls' next offensive trip.

With just over two minutes to go, the Owls were able to return the favor and force a shot clock turnover, with Blake French knocking down a deep trey to put WWU back in front 57-56. Two defensive stops from the Owls wrapped around a transition bucket from Andrews left Park with no choice to foul, and Ashlee Taylor calmly swished both to put WWU in front 61-56 with 44 seconds.

Park scored on its next possession and forced a WWU timeout on the inbounds. After the timeout, the Pirates fouled Andrews before the ball could be put in play to keep time on the clock.

Although Andrews missed the front end of the bonus, WWU picked up a huge defensive stop on the Pirate possession. Park fouled Andrews just 0.8 before the clock expired, and even though Andrews missed the front end of the bonus, the desperation heave was way off the mark and the Owls held on for the win.

WWU moves to 11-5 on the year, 1-1 in conference play as the Pirates fall to 11-4 and 1-3 in AMC action. The Owls were solid from the floor, shooting at a .418 clip and recorded a season-best .615 mark from 3-pt range. The Owls held Park to a .411 mark from the floor and a .375 pace from long range. Aubuchon and Andrews finished in double-figures for the Owls as well, with 11 and 10 points respectively. Nicole Wilhite led all scorers with 15 points for Park, with White adding 12 and Kristian Dodds notching 11.

William Woods is back in action next Thursday night, as they finish out the two-game road swing at Columbia. Tipoff for the AMC battle between the Cougars and the Owls is set for 5:30 p.m.

ShowMe Scoreboard, 1.14.2012

Games played Friday, Jan. 13, 2012

 

High School Boys

• Dexter 68. Bernie 61
• Cape Central 59, New Madrid County Central 47
• Oran 59, St. Vincent 50
• Charleston 99, Scout County Central 86
• Kennett 73, Senath-Hornersville 49
• Delta 74, East Prairie 50
• Advance 89, Richland 65
• North Pemiscot 72, Southland 38
• Holcomb 66, Neelyville 31
• Doniphan 64, Naylor 50
• Poplar Bluff 56, Twin Rivers 45
• Clearwater 71, Van Buren 54

High School Girls

• Poplar Bluff 52, Twin Rivers 29