Ash Grove head coach Austin Houp was pretty happy after his team’s victory in the championship game of the 21st Marionville Lady Comet Classic. And it wasn’t just because the Lady Pirates beat the Spokane Lady Owls 46-32, just the fourth loss on the season for Spokane. He’s seeing some good things from his players that are resulting in big changes from last year.
The Lady Pirates had a record of 5-19 last year. This year Ash Grove has posted a 12-5 record and Coach Houp credits the leadership his seniors—Alexa Owens, Morgan Allred, and Mallory Keith—as being the main reason for change of fortunes.
“Morgan and Kayla are our steady leaders—they don’t say much but they put the hard work in—and Alexa is our fighter,” said Houp. “If she (Owens) is intense in a positive way, our girls respond.”
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Ash Grove was able to shut out the Lady Owls in the first quarter. Using a 2-3 zone defense and pressuring the perimeter shot, Spokane put up five shots in the first eight minutes, shooting blanks each time. In contrast, the Lady Pirates had 13 shot attempts due in part to the fact that they forced six turnovers in the opening period and led 9-0.
Spokane (12-4) began to hit some of their shots from the outside in the second period. After going 9:15 without a field goal, Casey Wallace hit a baseline jumper from beyond the arc for the Lady Owls first points of the game. Her second trey got her team within five points of the Lady Pirates and that was the margin going into halftime.
Wallace scored 14 points to pace Spokane.
Coach Houp said his team had gotten away from their game plan a little bit in the second quarter, something he corrected at halftime. “Our scouting report had it to where they really didn’t want to finish inside with the bigs much,” Houp said. “We had to expand our zone to expand our lead again.”
Spokane continued to put up shots from long range, but only made six of their 20 three-point attempts for the game.
Meanwhile, Ash Grove got steady output from several players. Allred led all scorers with 24 points and had six rebounds; Owens grabbed seven rounds of her own and had four assists.
The game was decided the fourth quarter as the Lady Pirates ran off eight straight points, establishing a 14-point lead. That ended up being the final spread as Ash Grove was able to notch the win, 46-32.
Ash Grove didn’t commit a turnover the in the last quarter, which is something Coach Houp helped them win the game. “We lost three games earlier this season simply because we didn’t control the ball. We’ve learned from those games,” he said.
All-Tournament Team: Alexa Owens, Morgan Allred, Mallory Keith—Ash Grove; Meghan Robertson, Casey Wallace, Shasta Turnbough—Spokane; Kymbra Kirby, Abbie Hopkins—Marionville; Jaslyn Williams, Elaina Roeder—Springfield Central; Elizabeth Gearing—Billings; Ragan Blinzler—Pierce City
3rd Place: Springfield Central 55, Marionville 39
Central senior Jaslyn Williams scored 19 points in the Bulldog’s third place finish.
Spokane: 0, 11, 13, 8—32
Ash Grove: 9, 7, 14, 16—46
Spokane: Armitage, 7; McMurray, 3; Robertson, 8; Wallace, 14
Ash Grove: Allred, 24; Cashio, 7; Keene, 2; Keith, 9; Owens, 4
