By Scott Vanscoy
The Blue Eye Lady Bulldogs defeated the Cassville Lady Wildcats, 55-44, on Monday night. The contest was closer than the score appeared as Blue Eye jumped out to a big lead only to see Cassville claw their way back within four near the end of the game.
Blue Eye used a stifling defense to hold 6’4” junior Madi Stokes to only six points in the first half, which was coach Ken Elfrink’s game plan.
“We had to keep them scrambling, we did not want them to get into a half court set,” said Elfrink. “Not much you can do against 6’4” Stokes when we are 5’7”. We tried to keep it out of certain spots on the floor because if they get it there it doesn’t matter if you triple-team her, she’s going to score. We tried to put enough ball pressure on their guards that they couldn’t get her the ball.”
In the first half, Cassville had several miscues and turnovers, both forced and unforced, that were caused by Blue Eye’s run and jump defense. Playing without their leading defensive point guard, sophomore Kenzie Hobbs, Elfrink was pleased with his squad’s efforts.
“We played hard tonight,” said Elfrink. “We outhustled, that was our game plan tonight. It was a total team effort.”
PHOTOS: BLUE EYE VS. CASSVILLE
Helping in the effort were senior Jaden Box and junior Addie Forester, who came off the bench and increased the pressure on the Lady Wildcats.
“I like to be a spark for the team,” said Box. “I need to be a leader, that’s my role. I believe that when it comes to loose balls, us getting them, it fires up the defense. It really helped us. The other team didn’t know what to expect when we went for the loose balls like that. I think it took them by surprise. We are a very small team so our biggest struggle was trying to keep it from Stokes; we had to put a lot more pressure on their guards and try to keep them from making easy passes to her.”
Cassville continued to struggle with Blue Eye’s tenacious defense in the second quarter, finding themselves behind, 30-14 at halftime.
“We struggled with run and jump tonight,” said Cassville coach Chris Shore. “The press hurt us. Things kind of snowballed in the second quarter; we only got four shots that quarter. We were 2 for 10 in the first quarter, got some good looks and then I felt like we got kind of frustrated and like I said, it snowballed. We dug ourselves a big hole.”
Stokes started to get the ball in the second half, where she scored 20 of her game-high 26 points. Cassville kept feeding her the ball whenever they had the opportunity to do so but Blue Eye pressured Cassville’s guards relentlessly.
“We got back to within four in the fourth quarter,” said Shore. “We were back to under 10 points less than four minutes into the second half but it’s tough when you dig that big of a hole. Madi scored six points in the first half and she scored 20 in the second half. If we hadn’t of turned it over she probably could have had 40. It’s kind of where we are, decision-making mistakes with the ball. I was proud of our group for battling back in the second half. We’ve just got to get better at handling pressure.”
Blue Eye would bend but not break in the fourth quarter as Cassville reduced the deficit to four but could get no closer. With 1:37 left to go in the game, the score was 48-44. Cassville did not score the rest of the game and Blue Eye went 5/6 from the free throw line to seal the deal.
“I could give the girls a pat on the back but that is what is expected of us,” said Elfrink. “That’s what you’re supposed to do—hustle. That’s how you win ballgames.”
Cassville 6 8 13 17 -44
Blue Eye 14 12 12 13 -55
Cassville—Madi Stokes-26, Audra Brooks-6, Kandace Wallace-6, Ashlynn Howe-2, Macey Parsons-2, Hallie Long-2
Blue Eye—Kohnnar Patton-24, Kenedi Larson-10, Ayshia Bettlach-8, Jaden Box-7, Addie Forester-5, Maddie Box-1
