WEBB CITY, Mo. — The offense’s production took a quarter to catch up to the play on the defensive end as Webb City girls basketball opened the season with a 55-24 win over McDonald County on Monday inside the Cardinal Dome.
The Cardinals and Mustangs took a 4-4 tie into the second quarter before Webb City outscored McDonald County 22-4 in the second period to take a commanding 26-8 advantage into the intermission. Webb City continued to pour it on in the second half, pushing the lead to more than 30 several times en route to the win.
“There are some very good things that we did in the season opener and there are some things we are going to have to correct,” Webb City coach Lance Robbins said. “To start the game, I just thought it was a little bit of nerves and inexperience. … Late in the first quarter and into the second quarter, I thought the ball started to move better for us offensively. And when it did, I thought we started to get good looks at the basket and our kids were able to step up and knock them down with confidence. … The biggest thing I was pleased with was I thought our defense was pretty good throughout the course of the game.”
Neither team found much to work with on the offensive side of the ball in the first eight minutes of action. Both teams were plagued by turnovers while having trouble getting anything going in the half-court set.
The start of the second quarter was a different story for Webb City, with the Cardinals ripping off the first seven points of the period to take an 11-4 lead. Sami Mancini, a 6-foot-5 freshman forward for the Cardinals, started the scoring with an offensive rebound and putback bucket. Austyn Mickey knocked down a mid-range jumper from the baseline before Izzy Lopez drilled a 3-pointer from the corner.
“She is 6-foot-5 and everyone is going to key on her,” Robbins said of Mancini. “We want to get her the ball early and often and play through her. We have to get it in there if she is open, but we can’t force it. It may take a couple of ball reversals before we can get it in there. I felt tonight, we were trying to get it in there off one or two passes instead of getting it reversed a couple times.”
“She is a load to handle,” Robbins added. “And she does a good job of not playing selfishly. If she draws a double team or triple team, she will kick it out to find the open person.”
McDonald County got on the scoreboard in the second quarter with a pair of free throws from Carlee Cooper, but Webb City responded with a 13-0 run to take complete control of the contest.
Kate Brownfield knocked down a 3-ball from the corner to start the run, with consecutive scores inside from Josie Spikereit and Mancini making the score 18-6 with 3:10 remaining. Malorie Stanley pulled up on the baseline for a basket, with Kirra Long and Ripley Shanks closing out the run with scores in the paint to push the lead to 24-6 with 1:10 to play
“The ball was moving to the open person,” Robbins said of the late run in the second period. “It kind of started clicking for us and we were making plays before they were there, if that makes sense. I thought the ball movement and unselfishness was good tonight. It is something we will have to continue to work on and get better at.”
Webb City pushed the lead to more than 20 for the first time early in the second half on a basket from Mickey and pushed the lead to 34-10 shortly after when Mancini scored inside while drawing a foul for a three-point play with 5:50 on the clock. The lead reached 28 points to close out the third quarter when Stanley sank a 3-pointer from the wing at the buzzer to make the score 46-18.
“We talked about it at halftime,” Robbins said of his team’s play in the second half. “We had a nice lead so let’s not go out, fool around and let them hang around. Let’s go out and send a message in the first couple of minutes in the second half. I thought we were able to do that.”
SCORING LEADERS
Mancini led Webb City with 12 points, while Stanley added nine. Mickey and Brownfield each had seven points, with Long and Spikereit each adding six.
Samara Smith and Addy Leach each had eight points to lead McDonald County.
UP NEXT
Webb City is in action next in the Carthage Lady Tigers Invitational from Dec. 2-4.
