Lady Cardinals steal their way to 92-55 win

By DONN ADAMSON/Daily Journal Sports Editor

PARK HILLS - The Mineral Area College Lady Cardinals forced 35 turnovers by the Missouri Baptist Lady Spartan J.V.'s, 23 of which were steals by the home team. The result was a 92-55 walk-over for Mineral Area.

Both teams had to be careful as far as fouls and injuries would go, since Missouri Baptist's bench consisted of only one player and Mineral Area's bench only had two. MAC coach Lana LaBruyere had great concern midway through the second half with two players coming out of the game due to injury. All 13 players scored points in the game.

Both teams started out a little tentative as Mineral Area established an 8-7 lead four minutes into the ball game, but from there the Lady Cardinals ran away with things. MAC used a trapping defense to cause several turnovers in the middle minutes of the half for the Lady Spartans.

Anna Brisso collected three steals in less than a minute with the Lady Cardinals converting them into points on the other end. Coupled with eight offensive rebounds and most of the first half was played on Mineral Area's end of the court.

Only two things kept the Lady Cardinals from blowing the game wide open by half-time. When the Lady Spartans would get by Mineral Area's front line of defense, they would float a pass into their 6'1" center Bona Ogada, who scored 18 points in the half, and on the other end the Lady Cardinals shot 36 percent from the floor making only 17 of their 47 shots. The results were a 44-32 half-time score.

The Lady Cardinals kept what was working and corrected what wasn't working so good and the result was a runaway in the second half. Mineral Area outscored Missouri Baptist 25-8 in the first 10 minutes of the second half.

MAC's defense recorded another 16 turnovers by the Lady Spartans and made 10 more steals. Even though they made 10 turnovers of their own, the Lady Cardinals made up for it by shooting 55 percent in the half, making 21 of their 38 attempts.

Missouri Baptist had an excellent shooting percentage with 51 percent from the floor for the entire game, but the Lady Cardinals defense was so stingy that if Missouri Baptist had made all of their shots, they still wouldn't have had enough points to match MAC's 92 in the game.

Midway through the second half, Ogada contracted her fourth foul and had to sit out for a good portion of the half. The Lady Cardinals, who had been going inside anyway, found it even easier to take the ball to the hoop, and they did just that.

The Lady Cardinals were able to get the ball down low to Alycea Wallace, and what Wallace didn't put up, she dished off to Robin Sane at the other low post. The two had half of MAC's points with Sane scoring a game-high 28 points and Wallace scoring 18.

If any shot was missed, Melissa Pollard was there to grab the offensive rebound. Pollard made nine such rebounds in the game with several going for putbacks as part of her 17 points. All seven of the Lady Cardinals scored in the game.

Much of the second half was played on the run as MAC converted several of Missouri Baptist's turnovers into breakaway baskets.

With less than 10 minutes left a loose ball got behind Mineral Area's Danielle McBride, and in the ensuing battle to capture the ball, Ogada fell on the back of McBride's legs, sending the freshman center to the floor and also out for the rest of the game.

On the very next play an elusive rebound had players from both teams on the floor, and Coach LaBruyere called time to remind the Lady Cardinals they only had one more girl available on the bench.

Four minutes later, that player had to come in as another Lady Cardinal came out due to injury but luckily was able to return after a short breather.

The Lady Cardinals are now 9-7 and will play next at home again. This time hosting Moberly on Saturday in a doubleheader with the men.

Mo Baptist 32 23 - 55

Mineral Area 44 48 - 92

SCORING:

Mo Baptist - B Ogada 23, A Richardson 9, C Pearson 8, M Wiseman 8, A Crites 5, K Andrews 2.

3-Pointers - A Richardson 3, A Crites 1.

Mineral Area - R Sane 28, A Wallace 18, M Pollard 17, A Brisso 11, E Anderson 9, D McBride 6, S Dietiker 3.

3-Pointers - A Brisso 1, S Dietiker 1.