The West Prairie/Southeastern high school girls basketball team finished a perfect 3-0 last week including a win at the Lady Hornet Classic in Mt. Sterling to improve to 11-8 for the season.
The Cyclones started off the new year on Jan. 3, by facing Pittsfield in a rescheduled contest from Nov. 29 at the LHC.
And for the second time in a week, WP/SE defeated the Saukees 59-35 to take home seventh-place.
The Cyclones had downed Pittsfield 33-25 at the Lady Tiger Classic in Beardstown back on Dec. 29 and used a strong second half in the rematch to secure the victory.
WP/SE ran out to a 32-22 halftime lead and held the Saukees to only 13 second half points as Madelynn Sullivan led the Cyclones with 23 points while Alyvia Barkley and Kara Stephens added 18 and 11 points respectively.
Also getting into the scoring column for WP/SE were Madison McClure with three points, Emily Martin had two points, while Maicyn Shipman and Ashlynn Kelley had one point apiece.
Shelby Patterson led Pittsfield with 12 points. WP/SE returned home Jan. 6 to face non-conference foe Biggsville West Central.
The Cyclones never trailed in the contest as they defeated the winless Heat 63-21.
WP/SE jumped out to a 16-7 first quarter lead and increased the advantage to 34-10 by halftime.
Leading 58-20 after three quarters, the fourth quarter was played with the continuous clock rule in effect.
Sullivan led the Cyclones with 23 points and Barkley added 19.
Seven other Cyclones got into the scoring column as well including Payton McGrew with nine points, Kelley had four points, McClure and Josie Hodges had three points each, and Braelyn Reeves, Shipman and Martin each finished with two points apiece.
Lia Klossing led West Central (0-12) with 11 points. WP/SE closed out its busy week at home Jan. 8 against another non-conference opponent in ROWVA/Williamsfield.
The Cyclones held a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter only to see the Cougars come roaring back before ultimately falling short as WP/SE held on for 54-48 victory.
The Cyclones held a slim 10-9 lead after one quarter and it remained close for the rest of the first half as WP/SE matched its largest lead of the half after a three-point play by Sullivan gave the Cyclones a 21-17 lead at the break.
WP/SE used a 9-0 run to start the third quarter to extend its lead to 30-17 with just under six minutes to go in the period. The Cyclones maintained their double-digit lead for the rest of the quarter after a basket by McGrew made it 38-26 going into the fourth quarter.
R/W fell behind 40-26 following another McGrew basket before the Cougars’ pressure defense helped close the gap.
R/W held the Cyclones scoreless for 2:30 and went on a 7-0 run to get within 41-35 with five minutes remaining.
A basket by Riley Smith with a minute to go brought the Cougars to within 48-46. But WP/SE closed out the contest by converting 5-of-8 from the foul line to help secure the win.
Sullivan led the Cyclones with 21 points including 4-of-7 from the three-point arc and Barkley added 13 points.
McGrew and Kelley each finished with eight points while Hodges had four points to round out the WP/SE scoring.
Eliza Tucker led R/W with 14 points. After finishing 6-25 last season, WP/SE head coach Grant Bland is not surprised at the improvements made by this year’s squad, especially in a game where his team saw a large lead almost entirely disappear.
“We were in that situation a couple of times last year where we lose that game,” said Bland. “For us to fight back and dig deep, make the free throws, and hit the shots we needed to hit, and the out-of-bounds play we ran at the end was the first time we’ve run the play all year...for us to make that just kind of sealed the deal, which is cool.”
The Cyclones went 16-of-24 (67 percent) from the free throw line including 10-of-16 in the fourth quarter and the improvement has been noticed.
“That really hurt us a year ago,’ said Bland. “Tuesday (West Central), we were 18-for-24 from the line and we made the big ones and that’s really impressive.”
The Cyclones took to the road this week as they were scheduled to travel to Havana Monday to face the Ducks in a Prairieland Conference South Division tilt.
WP/SE is slated to host United in a varsity only contest on Wednesday before facing West Hancock on Thursday in non-conference action at Hamilton.
The contest against United was originally scheduled for Dec. 1, but postponed due to weather.
