WEBB CITY, Mo. — There’s a maxim in sports that it’s not how you start but how you finish.
Take for example Thursday night’s game at the Cardinal Dome between the host Webb City Cardinals and the visiting Miller Cardinals.
Webb City jumped ahead 12-0 behind nine points from their 6-foot-5 sophomore post Sami Mancini, while Miller did not score until the 2-minute, 40-second mark of the first quarter.
Miller, behind a 23-11 advantage in the second quarter as well as 11-7 and 13-9 third and fourth quarters, outscored Webb City 53-29 after that 12-0 start for a 53-41 win Thursday.
“I thought we came out great and got off to a 12-0 start,” Webb City coach Lance Robbins said. “I thought we were defending really well, then I felt like we just had a letdown. When we quit guarding, that’s when they got back in the game, and I don’t think we ever recovered after that. Our defense is something that we try and hang our hat on around here, and I didn’t think we defended well for four quarters tonight. We defended well for about four minutes.”
Hailey Mart led Miller with 15 points and Ashlynn Helton added 14, Alyssa Hill scored 11 and Haylie Schnake added nine for the 4-1 Cardinals.
Mancini scored a game-high 21 points and Kate Brownfield added 10 for a Webb City squad that dropped to 3-2 on the season.
At one point early in the third quarter, after Miller took a 34-27 lead, Robbins could be heard saying, “Take care of the ball” to one of his players after a turnover.
“We had 10 turnovers at half,” Robbins said. “It’s something we talked about. Just passes that weren’t there. Silly post entry passes. We’ve got four guards out there on the floor that can handle the ball and make decisions with it. We’ve got to make better decisions and make better passes.
“We’re used to Sami getting two and even three people on her. We’ve got to be able to recognize that and not throw the ball in there when there’s two or three people on her and make the right play and pass it to somebody else. It’s a tough loss tonight, obviously it’s one that we feel like we should have done a better job of competing, but we’ll learn from our mistakes and get back in the gym (Friday) and get better.”
Foul trouble also hampered Webb City at times—Mancini, Brownfield, and Mia Robbins all picked up their third personal during the third quarter—and Miller took advantage with more than 30 free throw attempts on the evening.
Miller entered the bonus with 3:12 remaining in the third and the double bonus at 3:55 of the fourth.
Webb City returns to action next week in the Lady Mustang Classic hosted by district rival McDonald County.
