By Denise Tucker (For Ozarks SportsZone.com)
The Nixa Lady Eagles used a 20-0 run in the first quarter to pull away for a White Division quarterfinal victory over the Blue Eye Lady Bulldogs in the Pink and White Lady Classic on Tuesday afternoon in Drury University’s O’Reilly Family Event Center.
Nixa scored right out of the gate as Sadie Conway blocked a Blue Eye shot, fed it to Norah Clark on a fastbreak and the Lady Eagles went up 2-0.
Unfortunately for Blue Eye, senior guard Avery Arnold went down on that play with an ankle injury and would not return.
“That was tough,” Blue Eye coach Ken Elfrink said. “It was a blow and obviously we knew coming in here we were going to have to play really, really well from the get-go. Nixa is very, very good; they’re athletic, they’ve got shooters all around them, they’re physical and their length…
“I thought we have an outside chance, but Avery going down early the first play the game, that just kind of changed a lot. The kids had to make adjustments and you kind of switch your whole game plan.”
A Riley Arnold 3-pointer would give Blue Eye a 3-2 lead before the two teams traded baskets. Kyla Warren gave the Lady Bulldogs a 5-4 lead, and a Samantha George basket was Blue Eye’s last lead of the game (7-6) with less than five minutes to go in the first quarter.
That’s when the Lady Eagles went off, scoring 20 unanswered points to take a 26-7 first-quarter lead.
Blue Eye, which fell to 8-3 overall, played Nixa closer in the second quarter (14-11), but was unable to overcome that first quarter as the Lady Eagles (8-1) took a 40-18 lead into the locker room behind the 13 points of senior Macie Conway.
“We had a game plan our kids knew very well, and we were going to execute it,” Nixa coach Jennifer Perryman said. “They (Blue Eye) are extremely well coached and they’re extremely disciplined. Obviously, Avery going out in the first minute changes a lot. It just allowed us to focus on Riley (Arnold) a little bit more, but we knew defensively that’s how we were going to get started.
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“We knew that (Elfrink) likes to slow it down because he’s smart. We just knew we were going to have to push in transition no matter what and that was going to come off our defense. So, our kids knew our game plan and they were executing it to a tee.”
Blue Eye kept it close in the third quarter, as well (13-9), but a deep Nixa team was able to run a lot of players in and out and outscored the Lady Bulldogs 23-2 in the final quarter.
Part of that fourth-quarter run included a milestone moment for Nixa senior Ali Kamies, who collected the 1,000th point of her career and led all scorers with 17 points.
“I’m a huge Ali Kamies fan,” Perryman said. “I knew she was close, obviously. I didn’t know when it would happen, but I knew it would happen this tournament. Once she got that close, I wanted to go ahead and allow her to get that.
“The kid does everything I ask her. She’s our spark defensively. She does the dirty work, and so to see her be able to achieve that offensive goal and that milestone is really special. I told her when I went to hug her that I witnessed all 1,000 points and it’s been so fun to watch. She and I started this thing from the beginning, and it’s been a great ride for her. I’m really proud of her.”
Kamies also knew she was closing in on the milestone but didn’t realize she was that close.
“I knew when (Perryman) took out the starters and she left me in (that she was close) because a bunch of the other girls were like, ‘Hey, you need to score like only four points or six points, and then you got it,’” Kamies said. “They did a good job of giving me the ball so I can get that finished.”
While Kamies acknowledged that she couldn’t have reached the milestone without her team, she has her eyes on bigger things for the Lady Eagles.
“It’s cool, but I have bigger goals and it’s with my team,” Kamies said. “It’s the ones that me and my team have, so that’s what’s most important to me. I couldn’t have done it without them or my coach.”
(2) NIXA 76, (7) BLUE EYE 29
Pink and White Lady Classic
White quarterfinal
BLUE EYE 7-11-9-2—29
NIXA 26-14-13-23—76
(7) BLUE EYE (8-3) – Riley Arnold 6, Gracyn Fairchild 5, Kyla Warren 8, Makayla Johnson 4, Samantha George 4, Lily Feagans 2.
(2) NIXA (8-1) – Sadie Conway 10, Ali Kamies 17, Rhianna Gibbons 6, Norah Clark 11, Macie Conway 15, Lilly Mahy 2, Chloe Krans 4, Karis Ferguson 3, Kinley Hammitt 6.
Up next: Blue Eye vs. Willard, 7 p.m., Wednesday at Weiser Gym; Nixa vs. Strafford, 7 p.m., O’Reilly Family Event Center
