Defense and rebounding was the key for the Lady Devils on Saturday, as they limited Apollo’s dynamic duo of Amaya Curry and Shelbie Beatty to just 17 points en route to a 37-31 district win.
It was a sloppy start for both teams, as turnovers and missed shots filled the first four minutes of play. Over time Owensboro began to pick up some steam by getting out in transition on offense, jumping out a 7-0 lead with 2:26 left in the first.
Despite getting a number of open looks it was as if there was a lid on the basket for the E-gals in the quarter, as the Lady Devils held them scoreless and went into the second with a 13-0 lead.
Apollo switched things up defensively to a 1-3-1 in the second, making it hard for Owensboro to create driving lanes offensively. This helped spark the E-gals offense, going on an 11-0 run.
Sophomore A’Lyrica Hughes would halt the run with a contested layup halfway through the second, but Apollo had stayed strong on the defensive and cut its deficit to 18-15 going into halftime.
Knowing that a strong second quarter from the E-gals could swing momentum, Owensboro Head Coach Jansen Locher encouraged his team to keep executing its defensive gameplan that they had emphasized in a walkthrough Saturday morning in the second half.
“[I told them] stick to the gameplan and be the smartest team,” Locher said. “We knew what we needed to do to win. We always know what we need to do to win, but sometimes we don’t always execute… The girls just really executed. They didn’t get down when they missed shots.”
The message was received well, as the Lady Devils rushed Apollo’s offense with irritating defense and extended their lead to 33-24 going into the third.
The E-gals did their best defensively to try and claim a late lead in the fourth, holding Owensboro to just four points. However, turnovers and offensive rebounding continued to be an issue, as the Lady Devils went on to secure the 37-31 win.
Apollo Head Coach Natalie Payne wasn’t exactly pleased with her team’s effort throughout the day, saying that they hung their heads outside of the second quarter when their offense had its best stretch in the game.
“I just thought that Owensboro wanted it more than we did,” Payne said. “I thought they were scrappy and they put pressure on our guards and that set the tone of the game… Overall, we were not consistent with our rebounding. We gave up too many offensive rebounds and they were quick to the loose balls. They were the tougher team for sure.”
The E-gals had gotten some decent looks throughout the game, but they just struggled to find the bottom of the net and it killed their spirit.
“They just didn’t fall,” Payne said. “We had layups. I meant point-blank layups around the basket. Sometimes that happens. That’s the game and you have to be able to fight through that and think next-play mentality and kind of move on and we didn’t move on.”
For Owensboro, Hughes led all scorers with 12 points on the night, orchestrating the offense while also being a key factor in the Lady Devils limiting opposing guard Shelbie Beatty to just five points on the day.
“In a few years some college is going to be lucky to have her as their point guard,” Locher said. “What a lot of people don’t know about A’Lyrica is that A’Lyrica likes to pass the ball more than she does to score. She could be a 25-30 point scorer night in and night out if she wanted to, but she doesn’t like that because she knows for our team to be the best they can be other people have to be involved.”
Curry led Apollo with 12 points as well, but no other players finished in double figures as Owensboro did a good job of pressuring the guard tandem of Curry and Beatty all game.
“They’re two of the better, if not best guards in the region,” Locher said. “We wanted to make everything hard and if they scored it was going to have to be tough buckets. It was. They battled, but they looked drained at the end of the game and that was our goal.”
The E-gals certainly missed the inside presence of sophomore big Jenna Dant and they could be without her for some time. As the center averages 12.2 ppg and 8.4 rpg, Apollo will hope to get her back to full health as the season approaches its end.
“It’s kind of a question mark,” Payne said. “She’s been in the boot for a little over a week, so sometime next week it’ll be a full two weeks and then we’ll re-evaluate.”
Owensboro grabs its first district win of the season (1-3), helping boost confidence as they head into a tough week sitting at 13-10 overall.
With their first district win under their belt Locher and company are excited about the opportunity to take on Daviess County and try to avenge their 47-31 loss from earlier this season, as well as taking on Owensboro Catholic and trying to prove that they can be a formidable foe in the district.
“It’s huge,” Locher said. “There’s a lot of district games going on here in the next week or two… We have Daviess County and Catholic next week… If you come to play anybody can beat anybody and we kind of showed that tonight.”
The Lady Devils will have Breckinridge County first on Monday, as the road matchup will tip-off at 7 p.m. Meanwhile, Apollo falls to 12-11 overall and 2-3 in district play before they have to hit the road to take on Greenwood at 6 p.m. on Monday.
Payne said that they will get back to the drawing board in practice, focusing on being a team that takes it to their opponents with a high level of intensity.
“I think we really gotta focus in on outworking teams,” Payne said. “Being the first on the floor to the loose balls and the mentality of not letting people basically outwork us and set the tone. We gotta set the tone and we gotta be the aggressor.”
