Lady Bears avenge earlier loss to Puxico in district opening rout

ADVANCE, Missouri — A pair of teams with two combined seniors met up Tuesday night with hopes of getting a playoff win and a bit more confidence as their careers — now and in the future — continue to mature.

No. 4 Puxico and No. 5 Greenville met up for a rematch of an earlier encounter that the former won after a furious rally from 22 points down.

In this Class 2 District 3 first-round contest, Greenville used a blistering latter portion of the first half to build a 20-point advantage and this time made sure the Lady Bears would enjoy the fruits of their labor in a 71-39 win.

Ashlyn West led Greenville (7-17) with 19 points while Ariel West and Brianna DeSpain both poured in 17 apiece.

“All year we’ve been battling with each other to get ourselves to have a certain attitude,” Greenville head coach Chris Hahn said. “There were some days we played like we didn’t even want to be there, but today was different. We were playing for each other and that makes a huge difference when you’re not playing for yourself and of course we had some fun.

“We shot it really well tonight.”

Greenville will take on top seed St. Vincent in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday in Advance.

“We’re playing with house money right now,” Hahn said. “St. Vincent is the No. 1 seed for a reason. They are good. I like our chances to come in and at least compete.”

Pacing Puxico (7-18) were Adison Denny with 14 points and Laney Porter with 12.

“Greenville shot very well tonight — they hit nine 3s — and that was the biggest difference between this time in last time,” Puxico head coach Trent Copling said. “I also feel we didn’t rebound as well as we did the first time. We still turned it over, but I think we did better than the last time.

“Overall, the season was a good season — we improved our win total by four games.”

The first quarter illustrated the importance of this game as both squads showed equally measure of superlative ball movement to get good shots even if makes were not flowing.

Greenville fell behind 9-5 midway through the first eight minute period, but a 7-0 run put the Lady Bears ahead 12-9.

To further measure the inconsistency that a high-pressure game brings, Greenville led 18-9 at the end of the first quarter — thanks to back-to-back triples by DeSpain — that featured just as much stoppages in play — 26 — as points.

The lead expanded to 15 points as Greenville got hot from all points of the hardwood. But similar to the previous contest, the Lady Indians refused to roll over, pulling back to within eight points a 28-20.

The West sisters combined to make four straight free throws, enabling the Lady Bears to move back up 34-20 late in the quarter.

Greenville eased into half up 42-22 as it ended the first 16 minutes on a 14-2 run which included a 3-pointer from St. Louis by Ashlyn West.

Now it was about maintaining a lead, which the Lady Bears couldn’t in the earlier matchup.

Ashlyn West remained in baller mode and Greenville’s economic use of the bounce helped avoid turnovers in pushing out to a 27-point edge.

Puxico tried to go on runs to make things interesting and the effort remained, but the Lady Bears refused to relent, leading 58-34 with a quarter to play.

“Our effort was up and we stayed up,” Ashlyn West said. “Right once we got in the locker room we had a big old dance party. We were getting up and talking to each other on the court. (The district win) means everything. We are out there just trying to do our best for our senior (Matti Looney). We just wanna be awesome for her.”

Earlier, No. 6 Advance/Bell City rallied from a 10-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter and upset No. 3 Meadow Heights 54-48 to move on to Thursday’s 7:15 semifinal against No. 2 Oran.