Central overpowers Perryville girls 66-31

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- The turnovers kept coming and coming and coming.

Eventually Central buried Perryville 66-31 on Thursday night.

The Tigers (16-7) recorded 24 steals on the night.

"It's always big to get steals," Central coach Sherri Shirrell said. "We put pressure on the ball, and got a lot of deflections and picked off a lot of passes."

The Pirates (9-13) had 21 turnovers in the first half, and 40 in the game.

Perryville's Natalie Bauwens takes a shot between Central defenders Farrah Malik, left, and Chelsea Vinson during the first quarter Thursday at Perryville, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"Every time I look at our turnovers, I want to hit anywhere below 20 and we have a chance," Pirates coach Vicki Lohmann said. "We had numerous turnovers tonight. A lot were by ourselves. We had bad passes, dribbled it off our toes, walked. I can accept a few of those mistakes from younger players, but not on the varsity level. It's hard to get a winning record when you turn it over."

Central pounced early for a 17-5 lead by the end of the first quarter.

"We scored a lot off transition," Shirrell said. "A lot of our points came off layups."

The Tigers scored the game's first six points, and led 8-3 lead before rattling off nine straight points for a 17-3 lead.

"We haven't done that in a while," Tigers senior Chelsea Pannier said. "We usually start slow, so that was good."

The Tigers outscored the Pirates 13-11 in the second quarter, but it was much improved play from Perryville.

Emily Hanquist and Natalie Bauwens scored all 11 points for Perryville in the second.

"They settled down," Lohmann said. "We got the ball in our scorers' hands, Emily and Natalie. They touched the ball, and even when they didn't score they had good shots. We just didn't rebound well. Central did a good job tonight rebounding the ball."

Central put the game away in the third.

After the Pirates' Lilly Johnson scored to open the quarter, Central shut them down for the next four and a half minutes.

In that stretch, the Tigers scored 19 unanswered points to take a 49-18 lead.

Pannier scored 13 of her game-high 21 points in the quarter.

"My teammates set good screens," Pannier said. "I got a lot of open shots and the lane was open a lot to drive in."

Pannier was held to two points in the teams' previous meeting, a consolation final in the Saint Francis Medical Center Holiday Classic in December.

This time around, Pannier was prepared for the box and one the Pirates threw at her.

"Her outside game wasn't on tonight," Shirrell said. "She hit a couple, but it was mostly inside. We talked about keeping her composure and taking what they gave her. She did a good job coming off screens and knowing whether or not to come off the screen and shoot or pass. We left the decisions up to her."

Before the third quarter was over, the Tigers held a comfortable 57-23 lead.

"We talked at half about not letting up," Shirrell said. "We went from full-court to half-court and it was effective, it created turnovers."

The Tigers cruised in the fourth with a running clock.

Central shot 41 percent (30 of 74) from the field, while the Pirates shot 31 percent (12 of 39).

Sadie Pittman added 13 points for Central and tallied five steals. Chelsea Vinson added 12 points and eight rebounds, while Pannier added five steals.

Perryville was paced by Hanquist and Bauwens with 11 points apiece.

Central 17 13 27 9 -- 66

Perryville 5 11 7 8 -- 31

Central (66) -- Machaela Durham 2, Farrah Malik 6, Chelsea Pannier 21, Sadie Pittman 13, Paige Smith 7, Chelsea Vinson 14, Crystal Vinson 3. FG 30, FT 5-9, F 13. (3-pointers: Pannier 1. Fouled out: none)

Perryville (31) -- Emily Hanquist 11, Lilly Johnson 2, Hilary Hemman 2, Natalie Bauwens 11, Courtney Borden 3, Morgan Mueller 2. FG 12, FT 7-9, F 8. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none)

JV -- Perryville won 57-51