By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Urbana, Mo. — Skyline’s dominance over Mid-Lakes Conference rival Fair Grove continued Thursday night in Urbana.
With Thursday’s 56-37 win, the Tigers pushed their win streak over the Eagles to 11. It’s a streak that dates back 1,484 days to a 48-41 Fair Grove win in the Skyline Tournament championship on Jan. 11, 2013.
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For a moment Thursday, Fair Grove (14-7) seemed up to the task. The Eagles’ zone defense bothered Skyline early, resulting in a 6-6 tie late in the first quarter. Even after Skyline built a 19-6 lead late in the first half, Fair Grove battled back, pulling within seven points in the opening seconds of the third quarter.
Eventually for Skyline (20-2), shots that weren’t falling began to fall, allowing the Tigers to pull away for its ninth consecutive win overall.
“We struggled early as far as shooting the basketball,” Skyline head coach Kevin Cheek said. “With [Alana] Findley on the top of that 3-2 zone, it ends up being real wide, so there are a lot of driving lanes that aren’t there. We didn’t shoot it well early, but holding them to 10 in the first half when you’re not shooting well is a good thing to do.”
Skyline led 19-10 at the half. That lead was 19-6 with 1:58 left in the first half after Skyline held Fair Grove scoreless for nearly nine full minutes.
Thursday was Skyline’s third win over Fair Grove this season. The Tigers previously beat the Eagles 51-41 in the Pink & White Tournament consolation semifinals on Dec. 29 and 57-26 in the Skyline Tournament championship on Jan. 18.
“It’s hard to match up with them because they’re so fast,” Fair Grove head coach Jenny Talbert said. “It’s hard to zone them because they shoot so well. You’ve just got to hope your kids just play really hard, and I thought my girls played really hard [tonight]. We just came up a little short.”
Kaylee Damitz was Skyline’s offensive catalyst. Her 19-point second half allowed the Tigers to find separation from a hungry Fair Grove side. The Eagles had no answer for DaMitz in the fourth quarter, where she went 14 points and connected on two of her three 3s.
“[DaMitz] is a great player and she always steps up when they need to basket,” Talbert said.
Skyline’s transition game killed Fair Grove in the second half. Their more experienced guards took advantage of a young Fair Grove backcourt, creating turnovers and facilitating numerous fast breaks.
“Defensively, when [our guards] want to, they can put so much pressure on the basketball,” Cheek said. “There were several trips where the ball would be going towards Fair Grove’s lane and somebody would pick the kid and next thing you know we’re shooting layups on our end.”
Back-to-back third-quarter 3s by Chloe Cole put Skyline up double-digits for good. Cole finished with nine, connecting on three deep balls.
“[This game] seemed a lot closer than the score,” Talbert said. “It felt like it was a pretty hard-fought battle. They hit some big 3s down there at the end.”
Skyline has only been held under 50 points once this season, in its 50-34 loss to undefeated Strafford, making its low first-half scoring output a rarity.
“I thought that was big for us mentally that, hey, we’re not shooting very well, but we’re still guarding,” Cheek said of holding Fair Grove to 10 first-half points.
“What we talked about at halftime was when you catch it, quit thinking about it. Make sure you see the rim and shoot it. One those started to go in, that started to open some things up.”
Fair Grove found success inside with its two young sophomore forwards. Harley Maxwell finished with a team-high 14 points, followed by Findley’s 10.
Fair Grove freshman guard Maddie Clark went down late in the fourth quarter with a knee injury after getting rolled under the body of a Skyline player.
“[Clark] is very talented,” Cheek said. “She’s so fast. I hope she’s OK. Early this season she was completely right-handed and didn’t want to go left. Middle of the year she’s a little better and then tonight I thought she wasn’t someone you could just force one direction. I was impressed with her progression from the first time I saw them play until now.”
Talbert said that she believes Clark will be OK.
Skyline can push its win streak to 10 with a win over Marionville (1-15) on Saturday.
Fair Grove has a shot at its 15th win of the season when it faces Crane (7-14) on Saturday.
FINAL: Skyline 56, Fair Grove 37
Fair Grove 6 4 16 11- 37
Skyline 8 11 19 18- 56
Fair Grove- Harley Maxwell 14, Alana Findley 10, Cydney Fullerton 4, Bailee Morgan 3, Lorin Weaver 2, Lexie Sutherland 2, Maddie Clark 2
Skyline- Kaylee DaMitz 25, McKinsey Mountain 10, Chloe Cole 9, Autumn Garrett 6, Savannah Owen 4, Lauren Wouters 2
