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Sikeston wears down Notre Dame for the second time this season
SIKESTON -- It wasn't definitively known if the Sikeston Lady Bulldogs had ever beaten Notre Dame after Sikeston did just that on Nov. 22 during the consolation semifinals of the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic.
We know now, however, that Thursday night marked the first time Sikeston had beaten their district rival in back to back games.
Sikeston's nagging defensive pressure forced Notre Dame into 35 turnovers and was the driving force behind its 47-29 victory at the Sikeston Field House.
"It's good for our program and great for our girls," Sikeston head coach Matt Schonhoff said. "Notre Dame for a very, very long time has dominated us. Two wins in one year against Notre Dame is obviously huge for our program."
Sikeston improved to 8-4 on the year and has won four of their last five games. At this point last season, Sikeston had a 4-7 record.
"I knew they were up and coming and I called that at the beginning of the year," Notre Dame head coach Renee Peters said. "They've shown that to us twice. Matt does a great job with his team. They've put in a couple bumpy roads a few years ago and know they're at a point where they can perform."
Sikeston was led by senior Ariana Beard and junior Erica Peet who both scored nine points. Beard was 4 of 6 from the field while Peet shot 4 of 7. Peet also had four rebounds and three assists.
A total of nine players scored for Sikeston, who uses a platoon style by switching out four and five players at a time to keep fresh bodies on the floor to ensure mass disruption on defense.
As a team, Sikeston totaled 18 steals led by Tyra Bonner's five. Notre Dame committed 11 turnovers in the first quarter which led to an 11-0 start for Sikeston.
"We met the challenge of forcing the tempo and forcing the action from the start," Schonhoff said. "To hold them scoreless for a lot of the first quarter was obviously huge."
Turnovers have plagued inexperienced Notre Dame for much of the season. They returned none from its 21-3 squad a year ago that lost in overtime to Dexter, who finished second in the state in Class 4, in the district championship game after routing Sikeston 59-23 in the semifinal round.
"That was embarrassing," Peters said about her team's turnovers. "My girls acted like they've never been coached before and that's unfortunate because we do work with them. It may not have shown tonight but I'd like to say we're a better team than what we showed. We have to start playing like we can."
Notre Dame (3-7) starts one freshman, two sophomores and two juniors. Their leading scorer was freshman Lexi Welter who scored eight.
"We're young and I know that," Peters said. "We have absolutely no varsity experience, but that's not an excuse that I'm going to use. Hats off to Sikeston. They're a very good team.
"We're just at a point right now where we've not won a lot of games, our confidence is not there and with a bunch of freshman and sophomores on the floor it's showing."
A 3-pointer by Hayli Chapman put Notre Dame on the board for the first time with 2:07 left in the first period. An old-fashioned 3-point play by Beard gave Sikeston at 14-3 lead at the end of the quarter.
Sikeston started the second quarter with a bit of a rough patch. They turned the ball over five times in the first four minutes all while Notre Dame spouted off eight-straight points to slice Sikeston's lead to 14-11.
Peet, who was forced to sit in the quarter after picking up her second foul, reentered the game and immediately ended Sikeston's 6:10 scoring drought with a drive to the hoop.
Chapman hit her second 3-pointer of the night cutting Sikeston's lead to just two, but Peet answered with another basket to spark a 7-0 run to end the half.
"There were spots where we were sluggish," said Schonhoff. "Attribute that to Notre Dame and what they were doing."We lost our edge. In the first quarter we were on our toes. Second quarter we had some fouls and we got lost in our substitutions. That last two minutes we got back on our toes and really became the aggressor. Ariana had some big baskets for us in the first half and finished a big one for us right at the end of the half, which was huge."
Sikeston was up 23-14 at the half. Notre Dame had 18 turnovers compared to Sikeston's 10.
"(Sikeston's) quick, they're aggressive, they jump to the ball and we stand and wait and try not to make mistakes," Peters said. "In return, we're making twice as many as we should."
Sikeston started the second half with an 11-2 run giving them a comfortable 34-16 lead by the end of the third quarter. They went up by as many as 21 points in the fourth.
"The second half we picked our spots and capitalized on what we needed to do," said Schonhoff.
Notre Dame will host Cor Jesu Academy tonight while Sikeston hosts Perryville on Tuesday.
| Notre Dame | 3 | 11 | 5 | 10 | -- | 29 |
| Sikeston | 14 | 9 | 15 | 9 | -- | 47 |
NOTRE DAME (29) -- Sam Brennan 6, Brooke Blankenship 2, Hayli Chapman 7, Allie Ziegler 2, Cheyenne Sander 2, Olivia Jansen 2, Lexi Welter 8. FG 11 FT 5-6 F 11. (3-pointers: Chapman 2. Fouled out: none.)
SIKESTON (47) -- Kiera Steward 2, Dominique Roach 1, Tyra Bonner 5, Larysa McClellon 7, Zaytiana Williams 6, Erica Peet 9, Ariana Beard 9, Miranda Harrison 2, Tyeshia Mitchell 6. FG 18 FT 12-15 F 15. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none.)