RUSSELLVILLE, Mo. - The Russellville Indians girls basketball team played some tough defense in the team's 55-22 win over the Jamestown Eagles on Dec. 11.
The Indians improve to 3-2 on the year, while the Eagles are now 0-5 on the season.
The Indians did not allow Jamestown to score more than eight points in any quarter, a point total the Eagles were able to reach only once in the game's third quarter.
Thanks to their strong defensive performance, the Indians were able to jump out to a 16-6 lead after the first quarter. In the second quarter, both teams struggled on offense as Russellville barely outscored Jamestown 8-6 to enter halftime carrying a 24-12 lead.
The Indians really began to pull away in the third quarter as they started the quarter off on a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 33-12 with 5:38 left to go. Jamestown did not get on the scoreboard in the second half until there was around 3:30 left to go in the third quarter. Maddie Sedgwick ended the scoring drought for the Eagles, but the team still trailed the Indians 39-14. Ginna Meisenheimer led the way, scoring six of the Eagles' eight points in the quarter, but Jamestown could not really cut into Russellville's lead as the Indians led 45-20 by the end of the quarter. On the other side of the contest, Cameron Grayson scored eight of Russellville's 21 points in the quarter.
Turnovers were a big problem for the Eagles, as they lost possession 15 times just in the second half.
Eagles head coach Kirstyn Conley said the team is weak with the ball right now.
"Our biggest thing right now is strength," Conley said. "We are very weak with the ball right now, a young ball club, some girls who (do) not have enough court time experience. That kind of hurts us a little a bit as far as strength goes, but strength is the number one thing they have to work on."
Indians' head coach Brian Bishop said his team tried to stay in the passing lanes during the game.
"Make (Jamestown) throw lob passes instead of direct passes and try to jump on those opportunities and get it and go," Bishop said. "We really tried to work on that more in the second half as in the first half we were a little sluggish doing that. But start of the third quarter, we did a really good job of that."
The Indians had around nine steals in the second half. Bishop told the team to still be active on defense despite the big lead and focus on getting good shots when they were on offense.
In the final quarter, both sides did not score much as Russellville scored 10 points and Jamestown only scored two. Meisenheimer scored the Eagles' lone basket in the fourth quarter with just over 1 minute left in the game to make it 53-20.
Conley said the team's hustle was a positive for the Eagles in the loss.
"I have several girls on the team that are going to give me hustle 100 percent of the time, and I think that is a positive we can take," Conley said.
Meisenheimer led Jamestown with eight points, Maddie Sedwick scored seven points and Annabelle Sumner scored five points. The Eagles went 1-4 from the free-throw line.
For Russellville, Grayson led the team with a game-high 18 points, Allison Schrimpf scored 13 points and Macie Edwards scored 10 points. The Indians shot 6-8 from the free-throw line.
The Indians' next game is 6 p.m. Dec. 20 at Belle. Jamestown's next game is 6 p.m. Dec. 18 at home against Otterville.