East Prairie celebrates Senior Night with wins over Westwood Baptist Academy

EAST PRAIRIE, Mo. — The East Prairie boys’ and girls’ basketball teams earned senior night wins in front of a capacity crowd on Thursday, Jan. 12.

The Lady Eagles (4-9) started the evening off with a 35-24 win over Westwood Baptist (5-2).

“I was delighted with the way we played that first half,” said East Prairie girls’ coach Scot Davis. “We were clicking well tonight. It’s been a slow process. That team beat us early this season by one point at their place. I felt like we were firing on all cylinders and it was probably our best offensive performance of the season in that first half.

East Prairie�s Wyatt Williams (21) drives to the basket during a win over Westwood Baptist Academy on Thursday, Jan. 12. (Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat)

“It was nice with the boys playing right after us,” he continued. “Because our girls got to play in front of a great crowd. They were a little nervous about that, but a couple of minutes into the game they settled down and started playing basketball.”

It took both teams a little bit of time to get into a groove offensive, as the game was tied 1-1 midway through the opening quarter.

However, Alison Miller knocked down a 3-pointer a short time later that provided the team with the spark it needed.

East Prairie's Kristen Berry (2) shoots during a 35-24 win over Westwood Baptist Academy on Thursday, Jan. 12. (Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat)

“A few days ago in practice, all of a sudden, [Miller] starts hitting shots,” Davis said. “It was like a switch had been flipped. She made some massive shots tonight and that’s what we have been looking for, and what we have been missing. We’ve struggled with some teams that have packed us in, but if we can continue to stretch the floor it makes us into a different kind of team.”

East Prairie led 6-3 at the end of the first quarter, but scored 14 unanswered points to start the second quarter and pushed the lead to 20-3.

The Lady Eagles led 22-7 at halftime after Tori Stinnett found Chloe Jackson with a nice pass inside, and Jackson finished in the post just before the buzzer.

East Prairie's Rafe Byassee (4) goes up for a layup during a 67-31 win over Westwood Baptist Academy on Thursday, Jan. 12. (Dennis Marshall/Standard-Democrat)

“[Jackson] is very capable,” Davis said. “She played well tonight.”

East Prairie got into some foul trouble in the third quarter which allowed Westwood to work its way back into the game.

Katie Gross made a pair of free throws with one minute and 51 seconds left in the third quarter to narrow the lead to single digits and Sydney Hawley buried a jumper on the team’s next possession to make it 29-22 heading into the final quarter.

Westwood trailed 29-24 after Natalie Kilhafner made a shot at the start of the fourth quarter, but the Lady Eagles it up the defensive intensity and held their opponents scoreless the remainder of the game.

“That third quarter rolled around and we got into some foul trouble,” Davis said. “They got back into the ball game, but I love the way we responded. We won the fourth quarter and sealed the game with a couple of minutes to go. Our girls have worked hard and this is a good win for us.”

Jackson led East Prairie with 13, while Katie Gross was Westwood’s top scorer with 12.

The Lady Eagles will travel to Scott County Central (4-7) on Jan. 17.

The East Prairie boys’ team won a bit more comfortably, 67-31.

Wyatt Williams finished with 21 and Connor Marcum added 19 to lead the Eagles (10-4) over Westwood (9-2).

“It was good to get a win on senior night,” said East Prairie’s boys’ coach Gary Scott. “I felt like we were kind of out of sync on the offensive end a lot of the time tonight, but the solid defense allowed us to stay in the game. Eventually, we got it together, started executing, and finished with a good win.”

Westwood jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but East Prairie responded with a 16-4 run to finish the quarter.

Williams kickstarted the run with back-to-back inside scores, while Rafe Byassee, Connor Marcum and Noah Johnson each also made impressive plays during the run.

Williams made a short shot a couple of minutes into the second quarter to extend the lead to double digits. Connor Marcum increased the lead to 30-14 after a steal and score in transition. East Prairie led 32-18 at halftime after Marcum added a floater in the final moments of the second quarter.

“It was nice to get a solid win for these seniors,” Scott said. “They commit a lot of their time to come out, work hard and help the team. All around they’re really good kids and fun to coach. They have good attitudes and they’ve been a really good group.”

East Prairie had some issues on the offensive end after halftime and didn’t score in the second half until Evan Kenedy made a shot with less than four minutes remaining in the third quarter.

“We have to keep playing defense and we have to find our rhythm on the offensive end,” Scott said. “We took a timeout and kind of got on them a little bit about being better on the offensive end. We got that bucket on that next possession and it kind of snowballed from there.”

East Prairie ended the third quarter on an 11-0 run to increase the lead to more than 20 points and put the game out of reach.

East Praire hosts Caruthersville (8-2) on Friday, Jan. 13 and Scott City (4-9) on Jan. 17.

__GIRLS__

EAST PRAIRIE 35, WESTWOOD BAPTIST 24

WB 3 4 15 2 — 24

EP 6 16 7 6 — 35

__Westwood Baptist (24) —__ Katie Gross 12, Sydney Hawley 6, Natalie Kilhafner 5, Chloe Dodd 1. FG: 8. FT: 7-13. F: 9. (3-pointers: Gross 1. Fouled out: none.)

__East Prairie (35) —__ Chloe Jackson 13, Alison Miller 8, Kristen Berry 7, Tori Stinnett 4, Bella Sutton 3. FG: 15. Ft: 2-6. F: 15. (3-pointers: Miller 2, Berry 1. Fouled out: none.)

__BOYS __

EAST PRAIRIE 67, WESTWOOD BAPTIST 31

WB 8 10 6 7 — 31

EP 16 16 16 19 — 67

__Westwood Baptist (31) —__ Jeffrey Vandover 18, Ben Jones 6, Alexander Carson 3, Chase Webster 2, Houston Davis 2. FG: 14. FT: 2-4. F: 16. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: Webster.)

__East Prairie (67) —__ Wyatt Williams 21, Connor Marcum 19, Noah Johnson 9, DaMarion Evans 6, Rafe Byassee 6, Evan Kenedy 6. FG: 27. FT: 13-17. F: 8. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none.)