The Purdy Lady Eagles took home the championship trophy at the 2016 Galena Lady Bear Classic on Wednesday night by defeating the Cassville Lady Wildcats, 70-44.
The two teams slugged it out in the first quarter with Purdy leading 15-12. Cassville found themselves in foul trouble in the second quarter and Purdy was quick to take advantage of it. Working the ball inside, Purdy increased their lead to 39-24 at half time.
GAME PHOTOS: PURDY VS. CASSVILLE
In the second half, Purdy came out and turned the ball over four times but Cassville could only get one point off of those turnovers.
“I thought in the first quarter we did a pretty decent job and then they started sticking those kids inside,” said Cassville coach Chris Shore.” We had mismatches; we were already in a little bit of foul trouble. In hindsight I probably should have gone to our zone a little bit sooner. We did a pretty decent job in the second half but then we gave up too many offensive boards. We had opportunities early in the third quarter and I think we scored one point.”
Purdy advanced their lead to over 20 in the third quarter, led by senior Desirie Ennes and her 22 points.
“I think we knew that if we kept our tempo up we would get a lead and stay ahead,” said Ennes. “Our plan was to push the ball and beat them with our speed. We were really wanting to move the ball so we could shift their zone and move their bigs. We did that tonight.”
Scoring 18 for Purdy was sophomore Layne Skiles, who managed to play physical but under control throughout the game.
“We kept running even though we’ve had a few games this week,” said Skiles. “I felt we had a lot left in the tank and we just kept pushing. We have kids that can come off the bench and just keep us rolling.”
“We did a lot of things right, certainly,” said Purdy coach Eli Ernst. “We really had a big challenge inside with Madilynn Stokes, she’s a heck of a player, all 6’3” of her. I think our girls on the inside did a good job of taking away that weapon. I’m really inspired by the amount of energy they put on the defensive end of the floor. On offense we talk in practice about making sure the ball doesn’t ‘stick’ and that’s kind of what we mean, we want the ball to move. When the ball is moving, we find opportunities to score through cuts and different avenues within the holes in their defense.”
Throughout the fourth quarter, Cassville kept fighting but could only cut the lead to 16. The Lady Eagles answered each time Cassville made a run, eventually expanding their lead to 26, with the final score 70-44.
“They did do a good job,” said Shore. “Purdy is very physical and Ennes and Skiles, they are good. They’ve got a nice team, I really like the two post players. They were a hard matchup; we knew they could shoot the three, so we came out man. Devyn Callahan played well for us. She was the difference maker against the press, they couldn’t press us. I was really proud of her, she had a good tournament.”
“There’s always room for improvement, nobody plays a perfect game by any means,” said Ernst. “We are growing and developing every night and that’s fun to watch. It speaks highly of this group of kids.”
Making the All-Tournament team for the 2016 Galena Lady Bear Classic : MVP Desirie Ennes, Purdy; Layne Skiles, Purdy; Lacey Moore, Forsyth; Madilynn Stokes, Cassville; Devyn Callahan, Cassville; Halie Allred, Hollister.
Purdy 15 24 17 14 -70
Cassville 12 12 9 11 -44
Purdy—Desirie Ennes-22, Layne Skiles-18, Sami House-8, Rion Boyd-7, Zoe Brown-5, Cailyn Spears-4, Hallie Henderson-2, Rylee Moller-2, Isbell Ibarra-2
Cassville—Devyn Callahan-12, Madilynn Stokes-11, Ashlynn Howe-7, Hallie Long-4, Macey Parsons-4, Audra Brooks-4, Kandace Wallace-2
