By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
FAIR GROVE, MO – Headed into Saturday’s Class 3 quarterfinal matchup, seven-straight El Dorado Springs sports programs (basketball – 2023/24, volleyball – 2023/24/25, softball – 2023/24) had suffered season-ending losses to Fair Grove in the state tournament.
Thanks to the Eagles’ 65-51 victory, that number now stands at eight.
Abbey Green scored 21 points to lead No. 1 Fair Grove and was a key contributor at both ends of the court.
In addition to her scoring responsibilities, the 5-foot-11 Green was tasked with defending Eldo standout Neely Schaaf during the matchup.
“I was focused on playing defense,” Green said. “I was focused on playing well with my teammates, and it wasn’t about the scoring at the end of it. For me, it was just about having to play together at the end there, and it was amazing.”
Fair Grove head coach Gary Greene praised his senior forward for making things as difficult as possible for the smaller Schaaf.
“We knew (Schaaf) was going to get some points,” Greene said. “We just wanted Abbey’s size. We wanted Neely to earn everything she got and have to shoot over Abbey. We didn’t want to try to block shots. We just wanted her to put her hands up and make it hard on her and just try to limit her.”
Following a 51-44 loss to the No. 4 Bulldogs in mid-January, Greene pointed to three key defensive matchups against Eldo’s three primary weapons in the rematch – Schaaf, McKinli Mays and Alexis Collins.
Collins’ perimeter scoring, in particular, caused problems during the regular-season defeat.
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“Alexis Collins killed us up there,” Greene said. “She had 17 points, and I think she had 4 tonight. We switched; we put Brooke on her because we knew Schaaf was going to get some points. We knew Mays was going to get some points. We did not want Collins to get those wide open threes. We were able to do a good job tonight limiting her.”
Eldo proved to be the early aggressor, with Schaaf scoring 8 of her game-high 22 points in the opening quarter.
While the Bulldogs led by as many as six in the period, Fair Grove quickly closed the gap on a pair of 3-pointers from Cam Hart and Brooke Daniels to tie the score at 16-16 at the end of the period.
In the second quarter, Fair Grove’s Ashton Bell got rolling.
The 5-foot-9 senior scored 8 of her 16 points in the frame and helped push Fair Grove’s lead to as many as four.
The Eagles took a 30-27 lead into the break.
Bell and Green’s effectiveness proved to be another key difference between the two contests – according to Coach Greene – and was attributed to an adjustment with Eldo’s aggressive interior help defense.
“At Eldo, when we caught it in the post, we put in on the floor, and they were all over it,” Greene said. “Today, we wanted to catch it and not dribble. We wanted to catch it and, if we couldn’t go to the basket immediately, we wanted to face up and look for cutters or weak side.”
In the second half, Green’s length and athleticism started to take its toll on the undersized Bulldog lineup.
With its tallest player standing only 5-foot-7, Eldo was forced to counter Fair Grove’s size with speed and aggressiveness – a move that played right into the hands of the Eagles’ attack.
“I thought today that we executed everything we put in the last two or three days exceptionally well – especially in the third quarter,” Greene said. “We kind of saved some sets for the second half, and they executed every one of them – and we got buckets when we needed them.”
CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO OF THE GAME
Leading 48-37 at the end of three, Fair Grove stretched its margin to as many as 16 in the final period thanks, in part, to its effectiveness from the free throw line.
The Eagles hit 11 of 14 shots from the line in the final period and did not allow Eldo to mount a sustained rally to threaten the result.
Daniels and Hart finished with 10 points each to join Green and Bell in double figures.
“They’re so locked in right now that they’re just not going to have a malfunction upstairs at a crucial time,” Greene said. “They may take a bad shot, but it’s not going to affect the net play. They’re just going to go back and guard. It’s not something I created. It’s just a culture around here.”
In the game’s final moments, Greene was able to sub his seniors out, one-by-one, so they could experience the home-court atmosphere together on the bench as cheerleaders one final time.
For Abbey Green, the experience was one she’ll never forget.
“I could definitely feel the emotions,” Green said. “Because I finally got a second to look around at how packed the place was; just how many people were gunning for us and also the people that were there cheering for us. Being over there with all of my friends and just everybody kind of going through the same emotion at the same time – it was surreal. It was just amazing.”
For Eldo head coach Beau Swopes, the opportunity to play Fair Grove once again in a playoff setting, while daunting considering recent history, was the only thing that mattered to his program and to his kids.
Fair Grove is a great program, and they’ve done some great things over the years,” Swopes said. “They’ve ended our seasons in multiple sports, but this group of kids … they don’t care. This game was the most important game because it was the only one in front of us, and that’s the only thing they cared about. They didn’t care about the other ones that had happened before.
“I told them that they’ve been kind of spoiled – all they’ve ever known was going to the final four, and they gave us everything that they had today. It just sucks that it had to happen in a quarterfinal game that we got the opportunity to play Fair Grove, but we’re proud of everything that they did today.”
Swopes also mentioned Schaaf as a key senior that would certainly be missed after playing her final game in a Bulldogs uniform.
“She’s one of the best competitors I’ve ever seen,” Swopes said. “She’s just going to come out there and play as hard as she possibly can and do whatever it takes to win. I’m sure every coach says that the stats are secondary, but for her, I think it truly is. She probably couldn’t tell you what she did. She doesn’t like it when she doesn’t shoot well, but it’s not for herself – it’s all because she doesn’t want to lose at all.”
Eldo ends its season with a 19-8 record. Seniors Alexis Collins, Kiera Strauch, Avery Floyd, Neely Schaaf and Lily Taylor will graduate and move on from the program in May.
Up next for Fair Grove (26-4) is a trip to Mizzou Arena for a Class 3 state semifinal round matchup against No. 10 Lone Jack (25-3)..
Class 3 Quarterfinal: Fair Grove – 65, El Dorado Springs – 51
Eldo 16 11 12 12 – 51
Fair Grove 16 14 18 17 – 65
Eldo scoring: Neely Schaaf – 22, McKinli Mays – 12, Alexis Collins – 4, Lily Taylor – 4, Avery Floyd – 3, Braylie Steward – 2, Allie Thompson – 3, Kiera Strauch – 1
Fair Grove scoring: Abbey Green — 21, Ashton Bell – 16, Brooke Daniels — 10, Cam Hart — 10, Shea Skouby – 6, Emma Padgett — 2
