Maddick’s big game keeps Lady Spoofhounds winless
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville sophomore guard Kaylie Spire puts up a runner in between a pair of Lathrop defenders Monday night. Spire and the Lady Hounds fell to 0-17 on the season with a 66-49 loss to the Lady Mules.
Maryville girls basketball coach Candace Boeh knows her team’s Achilles heel: stopping the opposing team’s best offensive weapon. It bit the Lady Spoofhounds again Monday night.
Lathrop junior forward Isabel Maddick scored 29 points — 20 in the first half — to help the Lady Mules down Maryville 66-49, dropping the Lady Hounds to 0-17 on the year.
“In the MEC, every team has a top player or a top two players and we’ve really gotta … step up as a team to figure out how to stop it,” Boeh said. “… Every great team has those, so we’re going to have to find an answer for that. That comes with we’re young. That comes with knowing how hard you have to play, knowing our man-to-man philosophies.”
Despite the loss, Boeh has seen improvement from her young team over the past three contests — including a narrow 43-41 loss to Cameron in which the Spoofhounds led almost the entire game — whether that’s breaking the press, getting better shots or keeping the turnovers to a manageable rate.
“Obviously we can’t take confidence from the wins yet, but we can take confidence from beating a press, having some big stops at the end of games, ball reversal,” Boeh said. “There are positives that we can take away. It’s a process. It takes a while for a team to buy into a new system. And I think even though we’re not seeing wins, this is the first time after a game where I feel we’re making good strides.
“We had 16 turnovers. Our team goal by the end of the year: I want to be to 14 turnovers. They pressed the whole game, so to have 16 turnovers, that was great. I think we had some great shots, even off the press. Some just didn’t go in.”
Monday night’s contest started out close, much like its two predecessors. Maryville fell behind 7-2 as Lathrop hit a pair of three-pointers in the opening minutes. After Boeh called a timeout, junior guard Abby Van de Ven scored on a layup off an offensive rebound and senior center Rachel Auffert added a hook shot in the lane to cut the Lady Mules’ lead to just one.
Lathrop scored the next four points out of a timeout of its own and pushed its lead to 19-8 by the end of the quarter.
Maryville scored the first three points of the second quarter on a free throw and a layup from freshman forward Megan Worthington. Lathrop countered with the next six points and increased its lead to 37-21 by halftime. Maddick scored 20 points in the first half as Maryville couldn’t find an answer for her attacks off the dribble and in transition.
“I told the kids even if we took away half her points, the score would’ve been 21-17,” Boeh said. “We’d still be losing, but that’s a four-point game.”
The Lady Mules completely controlled the third quarter, keeping the Lady Hounds off balance with the full-court press. Lathrop outscored Maryville 21-8 in the third to take a commanding 58-29 into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Mules pushed their lead beyond the 30-point threshold on a couple of occasions in the final period, but Maryville showed its characteristic late-game fight in cutting into the margin and scoring 20 points in the quarter.
“I was really impressed with how we kept going,” Boeh said. “It was a 30-point game at one point and we brought it back down.”
The Hounds also picked it up on the defensive end of the court, leading to several run out baskets to boost the home scoring column.
“Our defense created our offense,” Boeh said. “We got a couple good steals, a couple high-lows and moved the ball from side-to-side. We executed really well. … It was nice to see pretty much our whole team get in there and execute together.”
Junior forward Josie Patton scored a team-high 13 points, including seven in the fourth quarter. Worthington chipped in 10 for the Spoofhounds.
Maryville begins a stretch of four straight MEC matchups at 7 p.m. Thursday at Smithville.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville junior guard Abby Van de Ven takes a first-half jumper over Lathrop’s Deidra Sellers in the Lady Hounds’ 66-49 loss Monday night at Maryville High School.
JASON LAWRENCE/DAILY FORUM
Maryville senior guard Ashton Reuter goes up for a short-range shot after taking the feed in the lane during the second quarter of the Spoofhounds’ 66-49 loss to Lathrop Monday night at home.
