By Denise Tucker (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
MORRISVILLE – The Marshfield Lady Jays continued their hot shooting in the 5th Annual Morrisville Tournament, rolling to another one-sided victory and the tournament title by topping Walnut Grove 50-32 on Saturday night.
Freshman Quinn Aldridge opened the scoring for the top-seeded Lady Jays by hitting a 3-pointer from the baseline – one of her three in the first quarter and one of nine the team would hit in the game. But if you asked Marshfield coach Katie Pritchard about her team’s success, she would tell you it starts on defense.
“It’s always nice when the 3s are falling, but for us, it’s always going to be defense where it starts,” Pritchard said. “We get our energy from there. We told (our players) that (Walnut Grove) has a couple of really, really good players and we told them that it was everyone’s job to shut them down. They really bought into the team defensive concept.”
Behind Aldridge’s 11 points, the Lady Jays jumped out to a 17-9 first-quarter lead. Junior Lauren Luebbert followed Aldridge with three 3s of her own in the second and Marshfield raced to a 32-18 advantage heading into halftime.
The Walnut Grove Lady Tigers, who finished fourth in the Class 1 state tournament last season, came out of the locker room and scored the first four points to pull within 10 (32-22). And even though the Lady Tigers outscored the Lady Jays 11-7 in the third, Marshfield got the job done on both ends of the floor and maintained its double-digit lead to close out the third quarter (39-29).
“Basketball is a game of runs, and we always expect it to happen,” Pritchard said. “The main goal is to cut off the run early and I thought we did a good job of that. (Walnut Grove) gave a little punch at the beginning of the (third quarter), and we just stuck with the game plan and continued doing what we do.”
The Lady Tigers were playing without one of their starters Saturday night after losing junior forward Rachael Kruger to an ACL injury in their win over Marion C. Early on Thursday night.
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Walnut Grove coach Rory Henry tried switching up his team’s defensive plan to slow down Marshfield and to overcome the loss of Kruger.
“We didn’t feel like we matched up with them very well,” Henry said. “We had one of our starters go down in the Morrisville game with a torn ACL, so matchup-wise, I knew it was going to be a very tough matchup for us.
“But I’m proud of our girls. We fought, we battled, and (Marshfield) just did a great job. They’re a good team and they took us out of our element. We just couldn’t quite keep them off the 3-point line.”
Luebbert, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, said the title was a team effort.
“Everybody played their butt off and it was just fun to work together as a team,” said Luebbert, who finished with a game-high 18 points. “We all shot the ball well tonight and we all passed it well, so I was super happy with that.
“(Walnut Grove) is very good. We just stuck to the game plan, we all bought into it and we all just worked together. Every play mattered and we got the stops that we needed to get.”
Henry said that Luebbert was a focus for his team but struggled to stop the tournament MVP.
“The Luebbert girl guarded well,” Henry said. “She’s a really, really good player, probably one of the best players that we will see. She just did a great job on both sides of the floor, and honestly, they did a good job of taking away what our strengths are. It was hard to get anything going.
“But we wanted to get to this game. And our goal is to win two of every three tournaments and you get to play Marshfield in the championship, a Class 5 team, and a really good program. For us, we had nothing to lose, especially with Rachael going down the night before. It really changes a lot of what we do. But it’s a win-win. We’re in the championship. We feel good about where we’re at. We’re probably not going to play a team as good as Marshfield.”
And despite the lull early in the third quarter, Pritchard and her team didn’t panic.
“We’ve really made it a point of playing consistently for four quarters,” Pritchard said. “I think tonight, when we did get that lead, we didn’t freak out. We just could stay with our game plan and stay consistent.”
MARSHFIELD 50, WALNUT GROVE 32
5th Annual Morrisville Tournament
WALNUT GROVE 9-9-11-3—32
MARSHFIELD 17-15-7-11—50
WALNUT GROVE (3-1) – Kylie Craig 2, Jacie Gavisk 2, Ellie Smith 11, Jadedyn Johnson 9, Kenna Tuter 8.
MARSHFIELD (4-1) – Lauren Luebbert 18, Abby McBride 11, Quinn Aldridge 16, Halle Menzies 2, Lillie Findley 3.
Third place: Morrisville 52, Lamar 46
Fifth place: Stockton 40, Hillcrest 22
Seventh place: Ash Grove 49, Diamond 13
All-Tournament Team: Kylie Hunter, Stockton; Jadedyn Johnson, Walnut Grove; Lilly Thompson, Marion C. Early; Abby McBride, Marshfield; Ashlyn Stettler, Lamar; Maggie Painter, Marion C. Early; Jacie Gavisk, Walnut Grove; Quinn Aldridge, Marshfield; Ellie Smith, Walnut Grove; MVP – Lauren Luebbert, Marshfield.
