Sikeston's pressure wears down Delta in Lady Devils Invitational girls basketball tournament title game

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- The Delta girls basketball team struggled against Sikeston's full-court pressure defense throughout the Lady Devils Invitational championship game Saturday afternoon.

"We reacted to their pressure the way they wanted us to," Delta coach Randy White said.

The result was a turnover-littered 70-39 loss.

"For a team to be able to play against us, they've got to be able to handle full-court pressure," Sikeston coach Matt Schonhoff said. "It's very hard to simulate full-court pressure in a practice if you don't do that."

The Bulldogs won the tournament title for the first time since 2005, when it also beat Delta to win the championship.

Delta's Alysha Vessells tries to pass against Sikeston's Leah Little during the fourth quarter of the Lady Devils Invitational title game Saturday in Chaffee, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"Sikeston does a real good job," White said. "They've got nine kids that they can run in and out, and about all of them are capable of scoring. They can handle the ball, and they're not afraid to handle the ball, either."

Sikeston took its first lead with 6 minutes, 31 seconds left in the first quarter and never trailed again. The Bulldogs forced 17 turnovers in the first half.

"They came out extremely focused in the first half," Schonhoff said. "That's one of the best first halves we've played all year."

Sikeston shot 16 of 25 from the field (46 percent) in the first half and led 42-18 at the break.

"Our shooting has been really, really good this year," Schonhoff said. "We had one bad game of shooting perimeter shots in our game against Woodland, but tonight in the first half everything was clicking. We didn't have a real good third quarter, but we got it back in the fourth quarter."

Delta's Macey Parks drives against Sikeston's Leah Little during the fourth quarter of the championship game in the Chaffee Invitational Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011 in Chaffee, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

Delta went on a 10-0 run near the end of the third and outscored Sikeston 14-12 in the quarter.

"We finally got some composure and started running our offense," White said. "Before that, they were pressuring and we were trying to get rid of the basketball as quick as we could."

Sikeston paid special attention to Delta junior Machela VanGennip and held her to seven points in the first half.

"She's a very, very good ballplayer," Schonhoff said. "She's their point guard, their scorer. We wanted to take her out of their game plan first half. She played the whole entire game and she got extremely tired, but she battles with the best of them. She's one of the better players we'll see all year and maybe one of the top three shooters that we'll face all year."

White said Sikeston's strategy against his team's top scorer was no surprise.

Delta's Macey Parks takes a shot as Sikeston's Tyangela Gibson looks on during the fourth quarter Saturday. Check out more photos from the game at semoball.com.

"We expected that, but we thought the other kids would go ahead and keep spacing and run the offense," White said. "I've got other kids that can score. They just didn't step up and take advantage of the opportunities they could have had."

Delta finished with 29 turnovers in the game and shot 12 of 35 (34 percent) from the field.

"Settle down and run our offense," White said when asked what his message had been to his team. "We'd just go down there and in five seconds we'd fire the ball up."

Delta dropped to 3-2 with the loss. VanGennip finished with 21 points to lead the Bobcats, and Tori Burton added 13 points.

All 10 players on Sikeston's roster scored in the win. The Bulldogs improved to 5-0 and were led by Tyangela Gibson with 20 points and Darqueisheanna Howard with 18.

Delta 12 6 14 7 -- 39

Sikeston 25 17 12 16 -- 70

DELTA (39) -- Machela VanGennip 21, Macey Parks 2, Chastity Taylor 1, Tori Burton 13, Myra Henson 2. FG 12, FT 11-13, F 15. (3-pointers: VanGennip 2, Burton 2. Fouled out: none)

SIKESTON (70) -- Tyangela Gibson 20, Keyonna Blissett 8, Darqueisheanna Howard 18, Leah Little 1, Mikala Tinnon 1, Mikala Nichols 2, Taneshia Pulley 9, Jalen Peet 2, Yalanda Johnson 6, Danika Garmon 3. FG 24, FT 16-26, F 13. (3-pointers: Gibson 3, Howard 3. Fouled out: none.)

Third place

The Woodland Cardinals avenged their district title game loss from last season by beating Scott City 51-41 in the third-place game.

The Cardinals, who were seeded fifth, were led by senior Kendra Pinkley's 20 points and 17 rebounds. Sophomores Josie Long and Kathlyn Cooper also finished in double digits with 16 and 11 points, respectively.

No. 2 seed Scott City was led by Katie Hogan with 15 points.

Woodland 14 14 10 13 -- 51

Scott City 8 8 9 16 -- 41

WOODLAND (51) -- Josie Long 16, Kathlyn Cooper 11, Lindsay Shell 4, Kendra Pinkley 20. FG 18, FT 15-27, F 10. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none.)

SCOTT CITY (41) -- Lyndsie Robert 9, Katie Rhymer 8, Katie Hogan 15, Alicia Kern 9. FG 15, FT 11-15, F 20. (3-pointers: Rhymer 1, Hogan 3. Fouled out: none.)

Consolation

Kelly claimed the consolation crown by defeating East Prairie 47-41.

Eight players scored for the Hawks, who were led by freshman Tessa Johnson's 16 points.

East Prairie 8 7 18 8 -- 41

Kelly 12 8 16 11 -- 47

EAST PRAIRIE (41) -- Courtney Carden 7, Rebekah Douglas 6, Caitlyn Harwell 20, Briana Strayhorn 1, Kailey Turner 7. FG 15, FT 8-20, F 24. (3-pointers: Harwell 3. Fouled out: Carden, Turner.)

KELLY (47) -- Tessa Johnson 16, Darbe Backfisch 4, Bridgette Chandler 9, Stephanie Worth 5, Logan Ivie 5, Kristi Brucker 3, Payton Jones 3, Katie Koonce 2. FG 15, FT 14-36, F 17. (3-pointers: Johnson 2, Backfisch 1. Fouled out: none.)