Pirates rally in 4Q to beat Bulldogs 60-51

A 21-point fourth quarter proved to be the difference in Perryville’s 60-51 win over Sikeston on Wednesday, Jan. 24, in Perryville, Mo.

The Pirates rebounded from last week’s loss against Bismarck to improve their record to 10-5 leading up to the Mayor’s Cup rivalry matchup against St. Vincent on Saturday at the Perry Park Center.

“This should give us a lot of momentum leading into the Mayor's Cup on Saturday,” Perryville head coach Jason Dreyer said. “Sikeston was really fast and really physical with us, so we didn't handle it very well in the first half. We made some adjustments in the second half, and then we handled the pressure a lot better, and we were a little bit more aggressive offensively.”

Brooklyn Moll led the Pirates with 23 points. After the Pirates fell to a 13-9 hole in the first quarter, Moll scored 10 points to spark a Perryville comeback that tied the game 26-26 at halftime.

“She is our leader, by far, on the court and in practice,” Dreyer said. “We play a lot of younger girls and they really look up to her so having her back healthy, obviously she led us in scoring tonight, but not only in scoring, she is our key on defense and transition and she's our leading rebounder as well.”

The Bulldogs took back their lead with a 16-13 third quarter. Landri Hammontree scored all seven of her points in that period and shot a three-pointer to give Sikeston a 33-32 lead with 4:17 remaining.

Marlie Crook scored a team-leading 18 points for Sikeston leading up to the fourth quarter but was held scoreless in the final minutes.

“We were letting our guards penetrate in the lane and then almost every time they were dumping it down to [Crook],” Dreyer said. “So we kind of made a few adjustments of our bottom girls, anytime that they had a guard penetrating in from the top, our bottom girls all just sucked into the basket. One would get in front of her, one in the middle of the basket, and then one on the other side and we got a lot of tips and a lot of steals that way.

Perryville came back to tie the game 51-51 on a three-pointer by Aby Amberger with three minutes left. She scored half of her 18 points in the final period.

The Pirates took the late lead and continued their run by scoring 11 more unanswered points through the remainder of the game. Janie Porter scored seven points in the fourth quarter to run her total to 13. The point guard took the game upon herself in the final minutes to push the Pirates to victory.

“We really want to have the ball in her hands,” Dreyer said. “She takes really good care of the basketball. Out of her seven points, six of them are off offensive rebounds.”

Kennedi Sims scored 12 points for Sikeston and Alex Segers added 10 points including a pair of three-pointers in the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs shot 11-of-19 from the free-throw line, while the Pirates made 15-of-29 from the charity stripe.

Sikeston (6-11) travel to Kennett on Jan. 29.

__Perryville boys fall to Festus__

The Perryville boys basketball team dropped to 2-15 after they were outmatched by Festus 72-27 on Wednesday, Jan. 24, in Perryville, Mo.

Festus started the game on a 14-0 run. Perryville was held scoreless for the first six minutes before a layup by Barrett Wheeler put the Pirates on the board.

The Tigers defense were relentless against Perryville, as they held the Pirates below 10 points in three out of four quarters. The only period in which Perryville scored 10 points was in the second quarter, when Evan Hayden scored all of his team-leading seven points. Barrett Wheeler had the second most points for Perryville with six.

Festus made eight baskets from the three-point line and were 8-of-12 from the free-throw line. The Tigers were led by Hayden Bates, who scored 19 points, and Drew Johnson, who scored 17 points.

The Pirates will renew their rivalry with St. Vincent at the Mayor’s Cup on Saturday in the Perry Park Center.