FOURTH QUARTER FINISH: Sikeston girls basketball extends winning streak over Perryville, use 21-7 fourth to win
SIKESTON — Losers of their last four games, the Sikeston girls basketball team was eager to get back on the court for its first game in five days.
A strong fourth quarter performance lifted the Lady Bulldogs to a win over Perryville (10-6) 54-44, their first victory in nearly a month in the process. Sikeston has now won its last 12 matchups against Perryville, dating back to the 2012-2013 season.
Starting the game, the Lady Bulldogs found themselves down 8-0, before head coach Alisha Wills called a timeout, and from that point, Sikeston was able to chip away.
Sikeston (6-12) cut the Lady Pirates lead to two at the end of the first quarter, and outscored Perryville 11-6 in the second quarter; leading by three heading into halftime.
Freshman Amyari Blissett had a game-high 17 points, six of which came in the second quarter.
Overall, she was a pleasant surprise for a Sikeston team that — outside of junior Taydrianna Barnett — have a second consistent scorer all season.
“She has really come into her own,” Wills said. “Being a freshman, playing varsity level, we did a lot of condensing at the beginning because she kept saying that she wasn’t a shooter, so it took a lot of getting her confidence built up enough to, in practice, to take those shots. Just telling her that to take the shot, just shoot it, and she’s worked on it. Like I’ve told all of them, you can never shoot too much, but she really had an awesome game for us. As a freshman, playing at the varsity level, that’s a fantastic way to start.”
Blissett also finished with five rebounds, an area where the Lady Bulldogs excelled.
Sikeston out-rebounded Perryville 39-24 for the game; freshman Karris Allen grabbed a team-high 11 boards.
Senior Zaria Blissett-Hall had nine, while Barnett hauled in eight of her own.
Averaging 52 points per contest, the Lady Pirates looked to be on their way to reaching that mark again, as it used an 18-11 third quarter, to widen the margin to six points heading into the final quarter of play.
Kirsten Stief hit a pair of big 3-pointers toward the end of the period, to give Perryville some added momentum, something head coach Angela Fulton said that she does very well.
“She’s always a momentum boost,” Fulton said. “She comes out, and she usually hits big shots in big times. We try to roll with that a little bit. Unfortunately, we fell a little short, but we just didn’t play Perryville basketball.”
Sikeston used a 21-7 fourth quarter to end the game in its favor.
Closing out on Perryville’s shooters was the message that Wills gave her team at the end of the third period.
“We tried to close out on their shooters, try to keep them from knocking the lights out on us,” Wills said. “They can shoot the ball very well also if you leave them open. We went man and tried to defend that, and I think they did a great job of that. Now, there were a few times where we missed assignments, and people got mixed up and didn’t switch, and they got an easy bucket. It was hard to make an adjustment on how aggressive you can play and how not aggressive you can play.
“In the end, I felt like they found the happy medium to take care of the ball and play defense, and we pulled down some big boards, which tremendously helped us. They did a great job at the end of the game being patient, hanging on to the ball, and just letting the time run and taking care of the game, putting it away.”
Going into the game, Barnett was just 16 points shy of reaching 1,000 for her career.
Flirting with a double-double, Barnett ended the game with 10 points. She will look to reach that 1,000-point plateau, when the Lady Bulldogs take on Dexter on Thursday, at the Bearcat Event Center, in Dexter, Mo.
Perryville | 13 | 6 | 18 | 7 | — | 44 |
Sikeston | 11 | 11 | 11 | 21 | — | 54 |
PERRYVILLE (44) — Kirsten Stief 14, Sydney Spears 11, Katie Winschel 6, Leah Buerck 6, Kirstin Jannin 4, Ciara Ehlers 3. FG 15, FT 7-15, F 19. (3-pointers: Stief 4, Buerck 2, Ehlers. Fouled out: none)
SIKESTON (54) — Amyari Blissett 17, Karris Allen 11, Taydrianna Barnett 10, Sydney Stark 9, Zaria Blissett-Hall 5, Destiny Pearson 2. FG 19, FT 10-20, F 17. (3-pointers: Allen 3, Stark 2, Blissett. Fouled out: none)