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SHS girls fall to N.D.
CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The Sikeston Lady Bulldogs were unable to capitalize on Notre Dame's fourth-quarter cold streak in a losing effort at Notre Dame Regional High School on Thursday.
The Notre Dame Lady Bulldogs (6-8) held on for a 63-57 SEMO Conference victory over district foe Sikeston, which fell to 8-5.
Sikeston never held a lead throughout the game, but closed the gap to eight at 51-43 on Martika Davis' field goal to open the fourth period.
Notre Dame responded with a 10-2 run, triggered by Kristain Burger's six points, to extend its lead to 61-45.
Consecutive baskets -- Davis' low post layin and Alli Blurton's 3-pointer -- cut the Sikeston deficit to 61-50 with 4:10 remaining.
Then Notre Dame suddenly went stone cold from the field, including 5-of-5 free-throw misses, for a little more than three full minutes.
"Missing those free throws down the stretch could have cost us," said Notre Dame coach Jerry Grim, whose team shot 4-of-14 from the charity stripe on the evening.
Sikeston, however, couldn't take advantage.
Stricken by the scoring drought as well, Sikeston could manage but three points, Blurton's fourth trey of the second half, during Notre Dame's scoreless stretch to trim the lead to 61-53 with about a minute to go.
Blurton, following a Notre Dame bucket with 56 seconds left, closed out the scoring with four free throws in the game's final seconds as Sikeston failed to stop the clock with a personal foul.
Sikeston weathered a scoring slump early in the contest, also, opening with six consecutive turnovers without a shot attempt. Cold-shooting Notre Dame could only muster a 4-0 lead.
Whitney McCray's two straight baskets, the first at the 4:20 mark of the first quarter, pulled Sikeston into a tie at 4-4.
Thereafter, the first period was played on fairly even terms with Sikeston trailing 17-14.
But, a disturbing pattern -- for Sikeston, at least -- was developing. Notre Dame was scoring at will, deep in the paint, with the 5-foot-9 Burger and 6-1 Claudia Brauss, despite Sikeston's zone defense.
That trend continued into the second quarter as Notre Dame upped its lead to 35-23.
In the third quarter, Sikeston, led by eight of Blurton's game-high 22 points, whittled down its largest deficit of 19 points with the final nine of the period to trail by 10 going into the last quarter.
Davis scored 12 points and McCray 11 for Sikeston.
Burger topped Notre Dame with 21 points, Amanda Toole had 11 and Brauss 10.
Notre Dame (12-2) won the junior varsity game 66-35.
Jessica McCray paced Sikeston with 19 points. Paris Burger and Amanda Fowler led Notre Dame with 20 and 19, respectively.
Sikeston hosts Chaffee on Monday.