GREENVILLE – When two volatile situations collide the result could turn quite extreme. Such was the opening game of the Annie Oakley Shootout won by the Versailles Lady Tigers 85-20 over the host Lady Wave of Greenville.
The Lady Wave entered Friday night’s contest at less than full strength. Sophomore forward Cassie Cromwell was dealing with an ankle injury and tri-captain junior Karsyn Shaffer has a broken bone in her hand.
“Both will be back in two or three weeks,” Greenville coach Rachel Kerns said.
The Lady Tigers were setting out to defend their 2014-15 Division III state championship. With 85 percent of last year’s scoring gone, the team was looking to find its own identity.
“We’re a lot smaller than in the past,” Versailles coach Jacki Stonebraker said. “We’ve got to push the ball in transition. Look for our guards to push the pack.”
Versailles opened the game quickly with a 3-point barrage, three by sophomore Kami McEldowney, and a strong turnover producing full-court press that propelled the Tigers to a 15-0 lead with 5:49 left in the first quarter.
“Versailles is an amazing team, in very good defensive form,” Kerns said. “Give Versailles credit.”
The Lady Tigers pressed the lead to 19-0 before settling into their half court man-to-man defense, which still was aggressive and stingy and gave Versailles a commanding 26-3 lead at the quarter break.
“We use the press as much as we can. The girls like it. We keep using it to our advantage,” Stonebraker said. “We have the player guarding the ball assume that they will not get beat, and the other four assume that she will get beat. Play like every loose ball is yours.”
Versailles maintained its strong performance through the rest of the game by outscoring the Lady Wave 16-4, 27-9 and 16-4 in the remaining quarters.
“We’re still going to win some games this year. Just a little slower than we’d liked,” Kerns said. “Versailles played a really good game.”
The Lady Wave were lead in scoring by Lessie Cable with nine points, and Sara Wenning contributed eight points. The Lady Tigers placed four players in double figures lead by McEldowney’s 18 and Lauren Monnin’s 12. Versailles shot 6 of 9 from behind the 3-point line and overall 28-67 from the floor.
Greenville- 20 2 3 FTM FTA PTS
Cable 2 0 5 7 9
Garland 1 0 0 0 2
Wenning 2 0 4 6 8
Nakamura 0 0 1 2 1
Totals 5 0 10 15 20
Versailles- 85 2 3 FTM FTA PTS
McEldowney 1 4 4 4 18
Watren 3 0 0 0 6
Langston 1 1 2 2 7
Blakeley 1 0 0 0 2
Langenkamp 1 0 0 0 2
Ording 1 0 4 4 6
Schmitmeyer 1 0 2 2 4
Peters 1 0 1 3 3
Shimp 0 1 2 2 5
D. Winner 3 0 4 5 10
Monnin 4 0 4 4 12
Marshal 5 0 0 0 10
Totals 22 6 23 26 85
Versailles 26 16 27 16 85
Greenville 3 4 9 4 20
