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By Pat Dailey (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
A familiar refrain heard by Mt. Vernon alumni and current students is the Mountaineers “bleed green,” in acknowledgment of the school’s colors, green and white.
“We’ll throw black in there when it suits us,” coach Dusty Killingsworth said.
A black shirt worn by Killingsworth proved to be just the kind of good luck charm Mt. Vernon needed to upend Springfield Kickapoo 55-45 at the Pink & White Lady Classic on Wednesday.
So rare have wins over Kickapoo been for Killingsworth during his 21-year coaching career that he could vividly remember also donning a black shirt the last time one of his teams knocked off the Lady Chiefs. Thus, he purposely wore black Wednesday.
“Once I had this shirt on, I remembered that’s what I had on back in the day,” he said, recalling a win over Kickapoo when he was at Willard and the late Stephanie Phillips was coaching the Lady Chiefs. “I usually change my shirt a couple times. But I didn’t change it today.”
Mt. Vernon (7-1) did change its approach over the course of the game, after a frightful beginning. Kickapoo bolted to a 13-2 lead. The Lady Chiefs were still up 25-19 at halftime.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
But riding the play of its backcourt, the Lady Mountaineers ran off a 21-5 spurt in the third quarter to take the lead for good.
“It took us (time) to get warmed up,” said Lacy Stokes, who netted 11 points. “Once we did, we all got in our spots and knew what we were supposed to do.”
Killingsworth charted Mt. Vernon (7-1) with eight unforced turnovers in the first half.
“That never happens to us,” he said. “We had girls running in transition and the ball would go out of bounds. Defensively, we were on our heels. We had our schemes set, but didn’t function in the first half. In the second half, we played our scheme extremely well. We responded to each Kickapoo run. Everything about the second half is who we are.
“It was refreshing to see.”
Camryn Eldridge also had 11 points, while Cameron Call and Ashlyn McCanless each added nine points and Lyndsey Hood scored all eight of her points in the second half for the winners.
Transition buckets were plenty for Mt. Vernon.
“We’re fast, so we try to beat teams down the court and get some shots off,” Stokes said.
Kickapoo (8-2) enjoyed a commanding height advantage and had no trouble getting repeated offensive rebounds. But the Lady Chiefs couldn’t convert enough of the boards into second-chance points.
“They’re really long so we knew it was going to be hard on us,” Call said. “We had to make sure to get bodies on them. There were times we could have done better boxing out. But I felt we did pretty good as the game went along.”
“The outsized us across the board,” Killingsworth said. “We had to make sure to get underneath and block their kids out. We weren’t doing that. But what we did extremely well is contest the second shot. That speaks to the intensity and toughness of our kids. I’m very proud of them. It was a fun, fun game.
“Kickapoo is a standard-bearer for girls basketball, so this was a big game for us,” he added. “We haven’t played them a lot. The times we have played them, they’ve handed it to us.”
Kickapoo (8-2) was led by Chloe Merced’s 16 points. Freshmen combined for 28 points for the Lady Chiefs.
Kickapoo (8-2) committed 31 turnovers.
“We caused a lot of them ourselves, but their pressure had something to do with it as well,” coach Jim Pendergrass said. “It was tough all the way around for us. It was tough for us on offensive rebounds, it was tough at the line and it was tough the way we turned the ball over.”
The Lady Mountaineers are hoping Killingsworth sports a black shirt again on Thursday for their semifinal contest.
“Hey, if it’s good luck, we’re going to need it,” Call said. “We’ve been practicing hard and trying to get on the map. We want to be one of those teams.”
Mt. Vernon 9 10 21 15 – 55
Kickapoo 13 12 5 15 – 45
MT. VERNON (55) – Lacy Stokes 11, Caitlin Hicks 4, Camryn Eldridge 11, Ashlyn McCanless 9, Cameron Call 9, Lyndsey Hood 8, Ellie Johnson 1, Lauren Vaughn 2.
KICAKPOO (45) – Hannah Collins 8, Leah Fredrick 5, Chloe Merced 16, Rachel Senn 4, Madie Barrett 4, Lydia Green 8.
