By Derek Shore (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Pierce City, Mo – The feeling of winning a district title never gets old, especially for Pierce City Lady Eagles head coach Rob Guerin.
“If the feeling ever gets old, I’m retiring,” Guerin quipped.
The Lady Eagles, for the fifth time in the last six years, secured the Class 2 – District 12 championship with an impressive 65-46 win over top-seeded Sarcoxie on Friday night in Pierce City.
The win snapped a seven-game winning streak for Sarcoxie, whose last loss was against Lockwood on January 30.
In fact, the Lady Bears defeated the Lady Eagles earlier this month at home, but that didn’t stop Pierce City from coming out with a different game plan which proved to be vital.
“I changed the matchups around,” Guerin said. “I set them up wrong the first time. We switched some girls around. They were able to stay with them a lot better this time.”
The Lady Eagles never once trailed in the game, opening with a 15-11 lead in the first quarter of play.
Pierce City extended its advantage to double-digits as they went into the locker rooms at halftime, leading 32-22.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
Following intermission, the Lady Eagles continued to add onto their lead in the second half thanks to the contributions from Belle Golubski (19), Kendyl Hayward (15), and Ragan Blinzler (14), who combined for 48 of Pierce City’s 65 points on the night.
The rest of the production came from Libbey Strickler, who had seven points coupled with Emily Drollinger’s six. Katie Tindell and Leslie Jones chipped in two apiece to help the Lady Eagles edge Sarcoxie.
“They just continue to come in and we work during the summer to improve,” Guerin said of his team’s winning tradition. “They just strive and always want more. It makes it easier coaching them when their like that.”
While they conclude the season on a disappointing note, Sarcoxie accomplished yet another 20-win season, finishing the year with a 21-5 overall record with plenty of room for optimism going forward.
“On the season as a whole, I thought we had a lot of young kids, who got a lot of playing time,” Ellis said. “We have a lot of solid returners. I’m going to miss our seniors, but we did a great job this year – learning each other and getting a lot of varsity minutes.
“We played through a lot of adversity this year and we played well together. Tonight, we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole and faced some adversity. Pierce City is a tough place to play and a good team to play.”
Ellis’s counterpart offered up some praise.
“(Sarcoxie) is tough,” Guerin said. “They never back down. They rotate some girls in there we have to play through. Hats off to them. They’re tough defensively. They stopped us and got steals every once in awhile.
“I think they’re a really good team.”
Pierce City advances to the sectional round of the Class 2 State Tournament to play Blue Eye at Carthage this Wednesday.
