By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Old habits die hard, as the saying goes, and apparently it applies to winning streaks, too.
That was the case on Monday night in Miller as the Class 2 No. 9 Lady Cardinals fought back from an 8-point deficit in the fourth quarter to knock off visiting Marionville 46-40 for Miller’s 12th win in a row against the Lady Comets––a streak that started in 2016.
“We battled through adversity pretty well and that’s why we make our schedule so hard so when this moment right here happens at the end of the year we’re ready for it,” Miller coach Ryan White said. “They’re resilient, man. It’s not going our way, not the night we thought we were going to have against them––we know we’re going to get Marionville’s best effort every time we play them and I’m very proud of the effort they give down the stretch in these games.”
Miller, 16-7, now prepares for the District 12 tournament next week at Ash Grove, where the Cardinals enter as the top seed, while Marionville, which dropped to 18-6, is slated to finish the regular season at Greenfield on Thursday. The Cardinals finished as the Southwest Conference runner up after posting a 7-1 record.
Against Marionville, the Cardinals led for most of the first half. It was 14-11 after a score by Miller’s Loghann Leivan with 3:53 remaining in the first half, but then Marionville’s Avery Eden made a 3-pointer to tie it and that was the start of a 9-0 run by the Comets to close out the second quarter.
Trailing 20-14, the Cardinals opened the third with three points from Leivan at the free throw line, but Miller didn’t make its first field goal of the quarter until Rachel Nunez scored on a layup with 2:54 on the clock to end a nine-minute scoring drought from the floor. Less than a minute later, Marionville’s Lanie Stokes made a 3-pointer to give the Comets a 28-19 lead.
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Marionville held a 31-21 advantage a minute later following a 3-pointer by Anna Bright.
And then the Cardinals started their comeback. Leivan scored and Nunez intercepted a pass and went in for a layup to cut it to 6 by the end of the quarter. Ashlynn Helton scored Miller’s first 8 points of the fourth, including two 3-pointers, the latter of which cut it to 34-33 with 4:15 left to play.
And then Nunez came up with another steal and a layup and was fouled. Her three-point play made it 36-34 with 3:10 on the clock.
Marionville tied it on a jumper by Bright, but Nunez added another layup at the 2:12 mark and Miller never trailed again while simultaneously holding the Comets to just two made free throws in the final 2:42 of the game.
“We expect teams’ best effort and it shouldn’t shock us anymore, especially when it’s Marionville because it’s a close rival,” White said. “When you get down 10 you’ve got to chip away, you’ve got to start with a stop, you’ve got to take care of the basketball and just go do what God gave you which is the ability to play basketball. We were in our own heads for a little while. Marionville came to play and we just battled back.”
“It always starts with the defensive end,” he said. “We make a conscious effort to just focus on that end and that usually leads to some easy buckets on the other end. But you’ve got to get a stop first. You can’t climb back in it if you’re just worried about scoring and you’re allowing more buckets on the other end. We focus on the defensive end and it seemed to work today.”
Miller celebrated senior night after the game, recognizing Alexis Bailey, Kaylee Thom and Kendall Neely. That trio has helped the program to more than 80 wins and three district championships so far.
“They do the things that go unnoticed,” White said. “They’ve never been the quote, unquote stars of the team. They didn’t score the most points and get that kind of clout but without them we aren’t where we are and without them we don’t win last year’s district championship against that same team. They are the foundation of what I tell everybody which is you’ve got to stick it out. It may not be your time as freshmen or sophomores or even juniors but at some point you’re going to be called upon. Those three have stuck it out even when most people did not and I’m just so proud of them and I’m fortunate to be a part of what they’ve done.”
Miller was led in scoring by Leivan’s 16 points. Nunez added 12, Helton scored 11, Layni Johnson scored 5 and Neely scored 2.
For Marionville, Bright scored 13, Stokes had 12, Avery Eden had 6, Dally Pomeroy had 5 and Rylie Fletcher had 4.
