By Derek Shore
Pierce City, MO – Despite dropping the season-opener at Cassville, the Pierce City Lady Eagles are still one of the more experienced Spring River Valley Conference teams. They returned the majority of their starting lineup this season and can now add their first quality win four games into the new year.
After sitting out several players due to foul trouble in the first half, the Lady Eagles overcame an 11-point deficit at halftime to outlast the pesky Lamar Lady Tigers in an overtime thriller, 59-56 in front of a raucous crowd at Pierce City.
The Lady Eagles head coach Rob Guerin attributed falling behind by double-digits after the first half due to his team’s foul trouble. At one point, Guerin thought the Tigers built a lead that was insurmountable in the second half, but his halftime message was simple.
“I told my girls at halftime, ‘We’ve just got to keep fighting. Chip at it a little bit at a time,’” Guerin said after the game, “The girls just worked hard, they did just that, and we got the win in overtime.”
Pierce City’s junior forward Belle Golubski echoed her coach.
“We worked together as a team really well,” Golubski said. “We fought hard and played really aggressive. Just working as a team allowed us to win.”
Trailing 28-17 at halftime, the Lady Eagles began chipping away immediately into the third quarter, getting within three points after a 14-6 run through the span of six minutes thanks to a combined four made three pointers from the trio of Ragan Blinzler, Emily Drollinger, and Kristine Stellwagen.
Lamar finished the third buzzer, clinging to a 37-31 lead after a number of missed free throw opportunities.
Down six, Pierce City continued to rally with Blinzler open on the wing, hitting her second triple to make it 37-34 before Katelyn Mooney extended the lead to 39-34 with an easy lay in on the other end the next possession.
After Lamar stretched their lead as high as 46-39 with six minutes left, the Lady Eagles began to battle back once again.
“We had to dig down to make sure we were getting the best opportunities offensively,” Guerin said. “We executed on those, but we weren’t executing early in the ballgame. Defensively, we just cracked down, played tough defense, and started rebounding better.”
With four minutes remaining into the game, Kristine Stellwagon drained a three, bringing the Lady Eagles back to within six. To cut it to 48-47 in favor of the Lady Tigers, the hot-handed Blinzler sunk her third and final three, but this one the biggest at the 2:20 mark for Pierce City.
That was before Libbey Strickler dished a pass to the wide open Kendyl Hayward for the Lady Eagles first lead since the first quarter. After two more lead changes resulting in a 52-50 Lamar lead, Hayward tied it up again with a layup as time expired, forcing overtime.
In OT, Pierce City took charge first off a Kayla Portillo three for a 55-52 edge as they didn’t look back, claiming a 59-56 victory over Lamar.
“At first, I didn’t think we were together as well as we needed to be,” Golubski said. “We got in our heads that, ‘If we worked together, we could come together and just pull it out as a win.’ Working hard is what made it happen.”
Pierce City (3-1) resumes play at home against East Newton next Monday, Dec. 12 while Lamar (0-2) travels to Liberal on Tuesday night.
“We worked during the summer and they have improved quite a bit,” Guerin said. “I just keep asking them to keep working hard every day in practice and keep improving. They’re doing just that. They’re exceeding my expectations right now, so we’re just going to keep building to get better and better.”
Pierce City 59, Lamar 56
Pierce City 11-6-20-22
Lamar 13-15-11-17
Pierce City: Blinzler, 14; Strickler, 7; Golubski, 8; Hayward, 12 (11 R); Drollinger, 3; Stellwagen, 5; Portillo, 8; Jones, 2
(6-for-15 in FT’s)
Lamar: Fanning, 16; Bartlett, 13; Beshore, 11; Morgan, 4; Compton, 2; Mooney, 10
(14-for-25 in FT’s)
