Owensboro made the first basket of the game Monday against Breckinridge County but that was the only lead the Lady Devils would have as the Tigers used balanced scoring and stifling defense to grab their region-leading ninth win of the season.
After the Lady Devil bucket, Breck went on a 15-0 run and cruised to the 61-32 victory at OHS.
Owensboro coach Jansen Locher said despite the lopsided defeat, his team can still take something from Monday’s matchup.
“We know where we have to improve,” he said. “We knew they had a lot of speed and they could shoot the ball well. They did both of those things. We’ve got to handle pressure and we’ve got to have more people handling the ball, other than Alyrica. Tonight I felt like we had too many people running away from the ball. It’s a good test to let us know if we want to compete where we’ve got to get to. They’re going to come back and work hard in practice.”
Breck didn’t let up after taking a 21-9 lead into the second half as they held Owensboro to two points in the second quarter to take a 37-11 lead at the break.
Lady Tiger coach Chad Moorman said they focused on doing what they’ve done all year.
“We’re just motion offense,” he said. “We’ve got so many threats and we’re so quick off the dribble. We just work for the right mismatch and our girls do a great job dribble driving and kick to the three. Like tonight, we’re shooting the three the way we are, it’ll be tough.”
The Lady Tigers went up 35 in the third quarter to make it a running clock the rest of the way as they had four players in double figures.
Aleigha Mucker and Cassidy McDaniel each finished with 15 points as McDaniel hit 5 3-pointers in the game.
Mucker hurt the Lady Devils from all over the court.
“(She’s) just an all-around athlete,” Moorman said of Mucker. “Gets to the rim. It’s a funny stat. She only attempted 21 three’s last year and through the first six games, she’s hit 17. She put a lot of work in this summer and got better all around.”
Isabel Grimes and Sydner Tucker also finished in double digits with 14 for the Lady Tigers in the win.
Freshman Alyrica Hughes led the Lady Devils with 11 points as senior guard Tamia Smith is still out with an injury, leaving the primary ballhandling duties to Hughes.
The Lady Devils are off until Friday when they take on Owensboro Catholic at the Sportscenter.
Locher knows they have to be ready.
“We know we’ve got a big game versus Catholic,” he said. “We’ve all seen the scores … Anybody can beat anybody on any given night so far in the region. We’ve just got to put his one behind us, learn from it. We’ll go back and watch film and show our girls what we need to do better and get ready for Catholic on Friday.”
Breckinridge County 61, Owensboro 32
BC (9-1) 21 16 10 14–61
OHS (4-6) 9 2 9 12–32
BC: Aleigha Mucker 15, Cassidy McDaniel 15, Isabel Grimes 14, Sydney Tucker 14, Lily Critchelow 4, Skylar Tucker 1
OHS: Alyrica Hughes 11, Krystell Pappas 7, Brooklyn Williams 6, Lyric Lawrence 4, Lizy Phillips 2, Lindsey Gibson 2
2021 basketball coverage is presented in part by Rhoads & Rhoads Attorneys at Law.
