By DONN ADAMSON\Daily Journal Sports Editor

Published: Sunday, December 12, 2004
Updated: Saturday, December 11, 2004 11:53 PM CST

PARK HILLS - The ladies played two of the seven Rotary Shoot-out games on Saturday with the Fredericktown Lady Cats winning the high school game over the Valle Lady Warriors, and the SE Illinois Lady Falcons trouncing the injure-plagued Mineral Area College Lady Cardinals.

SE Illinois 70, Mineral Area 47

The SE Illinois Lady Falcons had been ranked as high as No. 4 in the nation last week, but fell to No. 13 after taking their first loss. In Saturday's game with the Lady Cardinals, the Lady Falcons made sure they didn't slip any further in the rankings as they pulled out a runaway 70-47 win.

At the start of the game, the Lady Cardinals led fans to believe that they could play even with SE Illinois. The Lady Falcons made one free throw and other than that neither team could score in the first two-and-a-half minutes of play. Finally Robin Sane broke away for a lay-up and then scored again before SE Illinois could get a shot at their own basket.

The Lady Falcons ran the floor for their first two baskets and Mineral Area called time-out to correct the situation. MAC's Anna Brisso drove the lane twice for four points, and Alycea Wallace poked the ball away on defense with Erica Anderson each time collecting the loose ball and converting the turnover into points.

The second score by Anderson was a couple of rim-hanging free throws, and MAC went on to score their next six points on free throws to take a 16-10 lead. SE Illinois worked their press to go on a 6-2 run, but MAC broke the press with Danielle McBride getting the easy lay-up.

Four free throws by SE Illinois made it a 20-20 tie with 4:30 left in the half. The Lady Falcons ran the floor on the Lady Cardinals for an 8-1 run to close out the half ahead 28-21.

The start of the second half saw the Lady Falcons basically put the game away. Inbounding the ball, SE Illinois scored, and before MAC could get the ball past the key, the Lady Falcons stole it and scored again. After a free throw by McBride, the Lady Falcons did it again to jump out to 14 point lead.

SE Illinois was never really threatened again for the rest of the game. They would go cold from the floor for a good portion of the half, but the closest the Lady Cardinals could make it was 38-31. A four-point play by Jessica Powers again gave SE Illinois a double-digit lead, which would eventually grow to 23 points for the win.

SE Illinois shot nearly 50 % from the field and 75% from the line to dominate the scoring. Mineral Area was 13-36 from the field for 36% and 20-32 from the line for 65%.

The Lady Cardinals were led in scoring by McBride with 14 points and Anderson had nine. Brisso and Sane scored eight points each, and Sarah Dieteker had six points. McBride also had 10 rebounds. Amber Holt was high scorer for the Lady Falcons with 21 points.

Mineral Area, 6-4, will play next on December 27 in the SW Tennessee Classic against Dyersburg State.

Fredericktown 53, Valle 37

It did not take long for the Fredericktown Lady Cats to take charge of their game against Valle in the battle of the MAAA undefeateds. The Lady Cats pressed the Lady Warriors and jumped out to a 9-4 lead. The taller girls on each team, Kara Schilli for Valle and Betsy Royer for Fredericktown, traded threes midway through the quarter.

The Lady Cats continued to collect the turnovers by Valle, turning them into points to move out to a 21-12 lead going into the second quarter.

Fredericktown maintained their lead throughout the game with Royer and Michelle Matthews finding their way to the hoop on a regular basis. The Lady Warriors could not catch up but did not lose sight of the Lady Cats until the fourth quarter.

Fredericktown held the Lady Warriors to two baskets in the last eight minutes of the game to put the game away and become the only MAAA team left to be undefeated.

The Lady Cats were led in scoring by Royer with 16 points and Matthews with 14 points, and Schilli led Valle with 15 points with Sara Hermann scoring nine.

Valle, 4-1, will play their first conference game on Monday at Arcadia Valley. Fredericktown, 7-0, will visit Herculaneum on Monday.