Meadow Heights girls basketball team's season ends vs. Ellington

BISMARCK, Mo. -- For the entire first quarter, it appeared as though the Meadow Heights girls basketball team was ready to put a tough season behind it and start fresh in postseason play Monday night.

The Panthers maintained a lead for much of the opening quarter and trailed by just one point against Ellington at the end of the first.

However, fourth-seeded Meadow Heights got careless with the ball, rushed its shots and fell to No. 5 Ellington 74-51 in a Class 2 District 3 quarterfinal at Bismarck High School.

"When we started out, we ran our offense exactly how we had planned. That's when we were ahead," Meadow Heights coach Rhonda Miller said. "Then we quit running our offense. We kind of have a contagion, I guess you could say. Three-point shots are contagious to our team. If one of them shoots one, they all think they need to shoot one. And that really puts us in poor rebounding position if we don't make it. That made things very difficult because we kept shooting and missing them and were getting outrebounded. We just never could find a way to overcome it."

The Panthers held their largest lead of the game at 16-12 with 1 minute, 55 seconds left in the first quarter. However, the Whippets closed out the first on a 5-0 run and did not relinquish the lead for the remainder of the game.

Miller said Ellington began to attack the basket more in the second. The Panthers failed to adjust defensively and were outscored 19-7.

"They changed their offense and I don't think we responded as well on defense. They began to penetrate more and we had a lot of trouble stopping them on that," Miller said. "Once we did do something differently, then they started shooting outside and they were hot from there, too."

Meadow Heights sophomore Jacque Starkey made a layup to cut the lead to 26-23 with 4:40 to go in the half, but the Panthers were held scoreless for the remainder of the quarter and watched the Whippets go on a 10-0 run to take a 36-23 lead into the break.

"I honestly don't what happen. We were only down a little and we were feeling good. Going into it, we were ready," Meadow Heights senior Emma Cook said. "We knew they were a good team, we had gotten some scouting stuff on them, but they just beat us in everything and eventually it just got out of hand."

The Panthers had trouble stopping Ellington's Grace Stroup.

The junior had 13 points at halftime and finished with a game-high 20 points.

Meadow Heights eventually limited her scoring opportunities in the second half, holding her to seven points, but couldn't contain the rest of Ellington's shooters.

"She was a quick player, but she was also very tall, so I put my point guard [Kiana Hotop] on her after halftime when we changed our defense," Miller said about Stroup. "So we shut her down in the second, but I think probably her teammates picked her up and they began to make the baskets that she wasn't been able to."

The Whippets had four other players in double figures who combined for 49 points.

Meadow Heights will lose four seniors to graduation, including Cook and Hotop, who have led the Panthers in scoring all season and finished with 18 and 15 points, respectively, in the loss.

Despite ending her career at Meadow Heights on a sour note, Cook said she wouldn't trade it for anything.

"We had a good ride as freshmen, sophomores, juniors and now seniors," Cook said. "We've played together since Day 1 of fourth grade, so it's hard knowing we won't get to play together again. We've been with these girls in every sport, every club, just everything forever, so it's hard, but we know we gave it all we had in every game. We got to play with each other for eight years, so you couldn't ask for anything better. Going into it, we wanted to have fun, and we did. I know we'll be in the stands during break [in college] and everything, cheering them on because Panther basketball is forever."

Ellington 17 19 18 20 -- 74

Meadow Heights 16 7 11 17 -- 51

ELLINGTON (74) -- Grace Stroup 20, Natalie Bass 14, Mallory Hampton 14, Kara Loyd 11, Raquel Couthren 11, Sarah Beardsley 2, Bailee Hunter 2. FG 24, FT 22-27, F 19 (3-pointers: Hampton 3, Loyd 1, Fouled out: Couthren.)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (51) -- Emma Cook 18, Kiana Hotop 15, Jacque Starkey13, Sammantha Miles 3, Kylee Whitener 2. FG 18, FT 14-28, F 16 (3-pointers: Cook 1, Fouled out: none.)