Koerdt, Russellville too much for Lady Rams
Russellville ended the Lakeside girls’ basketball season Wednesday morning in the first round of the Class 5A state tournament at Trojan Arena.
The Lady Cyclones (19-10) took control early and never relented in a 54-36 win over the Lady Rams (18-8).
Leading 22-10 at intermission, junior Jaidyn Koerdt found freshman Taleigha Ealy in the paint for a score on the opening possession of the second half. Senior Pe’lar Handie put up the next 4 points for the Lady Cyclones to cap a 6-0 spurt before junior guard Mady Davenport got the Lady Rams on the scoreboard with a pair of free throws.
Russellville freshman Brenna Burk hit a 3-pointer to put the Lady Cyclones up 31-12 at the four-minute mark. Each team took turns scoring as the third quarter wore down with senior Adachi Igbokidi connecting with freshman Amelia Rogers for a layup in transition with 25 seconds remaining to pull within 37-18 going into the final eight minutes.
Lakeside head coach Chris Brock said Russellville’s length gave his team trouble throughout, whether with outside pressure on the perimeter or discouraging the ball from going inside the paint.
“Their length helps them in however they want to play, whether it’s half-court trap or a press,” he said. “Their length is really good, and you’ve got to be aware of where you’re passing the ball, how you’re moving your feet, how you’re attacking the ball to come to it. And they do a really good job of getting a lot of deflections and using their length to their advantage. I thought the press helped them a little.
“Honestly, I thought it was their half-court trap and just their length in the half-court that bothered us enough because I really thought defensively, our effort was good enough to win. We just missed too many — too many of the looks that we ended up getting in the first half, especially. I thought at halftime we could have been down 2 or 4, and we were down 12. And it’s just, it’s tough to get enough good looks against them coming back in the second half without making it kind of how we made it to come back and beat them. I just thought, you know, we missed a few looks we needed in the first half and gave up a few offensive rebounds because of their length in the first half too. That hurt us.
Igbokidi put up the first 4 points for Lakeside to start the fourth before Koerdt answered with a pull-up jumper before finding junior Grace Campbell on the right baseline for a trey. Koerdt continued the Russellville offensive push, hitting inside off a pump fake and then accepting a pass from Handie in transition for a 3-point play.
“You know, we love to throw it inside to Adachi or Allie (Pollock), and they did a good job,” he said. “Their length makes the entry pass hard, and then it makes it hard for you to finish once you get it in there. So they did a good job of that, but what we did, I thought, we still had
a few chances to finish inside that we just didn’t capitalize, and some of that is their length bothered us inside.”
Down 47-24 with 3:37 remaining, Rogers sank two from the free throw line as junior Ronni Formby followed up with a long trey as the Lady Rams sought to find their rhythm late. Campbell answered back with a trey near the three-minute mark, and junior Rayne Thone tacked on a pair from the line as the Lady Cyclones went on to claim the win.
“Well, we knew that coming in Lakeside was a really good team,” said Russellville head coach Ryan Koerdt. “They’ve got a good league down here. Everybody in 5A girls is pretty good. You know, we didn’t really want it to become a knock down drag out, because Lakeside kind of wants it in a half court, and we kind of want to pick up some pressure. We had some kids come in in the third quarter that really picked the pace of the game up and brought us some energy, and that was great.
“I thought Jaidyn was fabulous. I mean, she controlled the whole game. Out of all the 10 players on the floor, you could tell she was the smartest and just looked like she was playing chess and the others playing checkers and got the ball where it needed to be. She had tons of assists and made tons of plays. You know, Lakeside, they knew about her. You could tell they were up on her the whole game, and she’s had that all year, and she’s getting more and more mature at handling that.”
The Lady Cyclones came out with plenty of pressure from the start before senior Erika Bittinger threw a cross-court pass to Formby for the opening 3-pointer. This was Lakeside’s only lead as Koerdt answered with a trey
1:45 in and Burk followed up with a steal and assist to Handie for the quick score.
Bittinger shot back with a putback to knot the game at 5 with 2:45 remaining, but Koerdt continued to hit and make plays to give the Lady Cyclones an 11-7 edge headed into the second.
Koerdt began the second frame with an inside basket as Ealy followed up with a rebound and kick out pass to Campbell on the right baseline for the trey as Russellville slowly spread its lead to 12 by the half.
Koerdt led the way for Russellville with 20 points, six assists, four steals and two rebounds while Campbell added
11 points and three boards. Formby led Lakeside with 11 points, three rebounds, a pair of steals, a block and an assist. Igbokidi had 7 points, six boards and one assist, Rogers had 4 points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal, Orr had 4 points and two rebounds, Allie Pollock had 4 points and one board, Bittinger had 2 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal, Porter had 2 points, two boards and an assist and Davenport had 2 points with one rebound.
Russellville will play Marion
(11-15) Friday morning at 10 in the second round. The Lady Patriots, the No. 4 seed from the
5A-East upset top-ranked Little Rock Christian Monday.