Eagles down Hawks to claim third place at Lady Devils Invitational

East Prairie won 42-25 at the Lady Devils Invitational

By SCOTT ROSCOVIUS

Southeast Missourian

CHAFFEE -- Kelly girls basketball coach Rod McQuerter had a good plan for his squad heading into Saturday's third-place game of the Lady Devils Invitational against East Prairie.

And his Hawks worked the plan almost to perfection ... well, all except the part about putting the ball in the hoop.

The result was a disappointing 42-25 loss to the Eagles and a fourth-place finish in the tournament.

"We could not put the ball in the hole, simple as that," said McQuerter after his squad fell to 2-2 on the season. "That's what hurt us tonight. We couldn't put the ball in the basket. But give East Prairie credit -- their defense allowed us not to put the ball in the basket."

East Prairie (2-2), which fell to Woodland by 11 points in Friday's semifinals, decided to pack its defense and force Kelly to shoot from the outside. The strategy worked as the Eagles held the Hawks to 21 percent shooting from the field (10 of 48).

"When you shoot 20, 30 percent from the field, it's tough to beat anybody," McQuerter said. "We're a very young basketball team, but our girls kept battling, they kept fighting.

"Last year, we didn't make it to the championship round of this tournament. And this year they did. We're a bunch of sophomores and juniors, and hopefully we learn from this experience."

East Prairie was determined to prevent Kelly from getting any easy shots inside.

"Our game plan was to pack it in in a zone on defense, because we knew their strength was inside," East Prairie coach Steven Douglas said. "Make them play from the outside. And then we talked about the fact that they were probably going to pressure us the entire ballgame. And with the exception of a short period of time in the third quarter -- we had about five possessions in a row where we didn't get a good shot or had a turnover -- I thought we handled the pressure very well."

Credit senior point guard Caitlyn Harwell with consistently breaking through Kelly's full-court trap, moving the ball upcourt and finding open teammates with crisp passes.

"I've played with her for years," said fellow senior Rebekah Douglas, who led the Eagles (2-2) with 19 points. "Overall, she's got very good control. She's very leader-like. She just lifts us up. When things aren't going right, she tells you what to do. I feel like she does very well running our offense. She handles pressure very well."

"It got a little crazy there in the middle [of the game]," said Harwell. "You just have to keep your head, and then you'll be all right."

When Harwell wasn't feeding Douglas, she was getting the ball to forward Kaitlyn Shands (seven points) underneath or guard Dakota Arnold (seven points) on the wing.

"I couldn't do it without my teammates," Harwell said. "We all help each other, pick up each other's slack. ... It's definitely a team effort.

Kelly 6 6 7 6 -- 25

East Prairie 14 12 8 8 -- 42

KELLY (25) -- Samantha Ratledge 2, Morgan LeDure 2, Kaylee Scherer 2, Tessa Johnson 5, Tori Duenne 6, Kristi Brucker 2, Logan Ivie 6. FG: 10. FT: 5-9. Total fouls: 13. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none.)

EAST PRAIRIE (42) -- Rebekah Douglas 19, Dakota Arnold 7, Caitlyn Harwell 4, Kaitlyn Shands 7, Bethany Ferrell 3, Alexa Nordwald 2. FG: 18. FT: 3-8. Total fouls: 13. (3-pointers: Douglas 1, Arnold 1, Ferrell 1. Fouled out: none.)

Chaffee 63, Puxico 49

Host Chaffee took control in the third quarter, outscoring Puxico 19-6 in the period on its way to winning the consolation title.

Junior guard Jordan Pruitt scored 24 points, including five 3-pointers. Sophomore Julia Sutterfield added 18 points for the Red Devils.

Nikki Richmond led the Indians with 16 points while Danielle Roberts added 11.

Chaffee 8 24 19 12 -- 63

Puxico 7 16 6 20 -- 49

CHAFFEE (63) -- Jordan Pruitt 24, Julia Sutterfield 18, Lauren Whistler 1, Elaine Sexton 9, Elizabeth Sexton 7, Lindsey Harrell 3, Kaitlyn McFerron 1. FG: 20. FT: 16-26. Total fouls: 18. (3-pointers: Pruitt 5, Elaine Sexton 1, Elizabeth Sexton 1. Fouled out: none.)

PUXICO (49) -- Morgan Nelson 2, Danielle Daniel 4, Danielle Roberts 11, Brenna Hancock 5, Gabby Clark 7, Katelyn Pierre 2, Nikki Richmond 16. FG: 18. FT: 10-19. Total fouls: 19. (3-pointers: Richmond 2, Roberts 1. Fouled out: Pierre, Richmond.)