Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Lady Eagles split on the road

The Oran High School junior varsity girls basketball team picked up a win last night at Class 5 Poplar Bluff 43-40.  The varsity lost a heartbreaker 57-56.

The younger team jumped out to a 15-5 first-quarter lead and held on for the three-point victory.

Coach Ethan Evans said, "The girls shot the ball extremely well and rebounded just enough to win. We need to do a better job taking care of the ball but I was happy with the way the girls played especially since they had such a long layoff."

They had not played since the season-opener on November 20th.

Mallory Lowes led the way with 15 points, nine of which came from beyond the arc and she was four of four from the free throw line.  Katie Webb had 10 points in only two quarters of action.

Savannah Below, Heather Gosche and Taylor Lowes each contributed six points.  Below hit one trey and Taylor Lowes hit two.

The Eagles were 12 of 23 at the charity stripe for 52.1%

They improved their record to 2-0.  They will not play together again until the Scott-Miss tournament at Scott City, the week of January 9th.

The nightcap saw Oran on top 31-27 at the break but could not hold on to the lead as the Mules made a free throw with 0.2 seconds remaining to take the lead and the game.

Coach Evans told the blog, "We left too many good opportunities on the floor and didn’t rebound well enough to win this one. Our half court defense was pretty good but we have to do a better job of getting down the floor and defending the basket."

The Eagles trailed by one with 3:04 left in the contest when Leah Cauble hit two free throws to give Oran a 54-53 lead.  The score was knotted at 56 with one minute on the clock and Poplar Bluff committed a turnover.  The Eagles ran the clock down to 13.9 seconds before they returned the favor with a turnover of their own.  After a couple of missed Mules' shots, a foul was called on an attempt with only two-tenths of a second remaining to set up the game-winner.

Oran fell to 6-2 with the defeat.

Leah Cauble and Jessie Long had 23 points apiece.  Cauble had nine rebounds, two blocked shots and was seven of eight from the line.  Long had seven rebounds, hit two of three from beyond the arc and was five of six from the charity stripe.

Katie Webb had five points and six boards off the bench.   Katelyn Streeter had a trey for her points.  Claire Ramsey went two of two on free throw attempts to account for her scoring.  She also had three assists and three steals.

The older team hit 16 of 35 inside the arc (45.7%) but only 3 of 12 from beyond (25%).  At the free throw line, they hit 83.3% (15-18).

The varsity will be off until the new year when they participate in the 2018 Delta New Years' Tournament.  Oran, the defending champion, and the number-two seed will face the seventh-seeded Meadow Heights Panthers on Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 5:30.






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