KEARNEY — A season which less than a month ago beckoned with promise may have hit bottom for the Chillicothe High School basketball Lady Hornets Friday.
Scoring an average of nearly 51 points per contest as they began the Bulldog Classic tournament at Kearney Jan. 11, the Lady Hornets opened that tourney coming up well short of that total, but still earning a 38-36 victory over Excelsior Springs for their fourth win in succession – a CHS girls high since 2001 – to stand
5-3 on the season.
In the just under four weeks since, Chillicothe has topped 40 points only once in eight games –  losing that one to boot – and predictably has plummeted. Friday night, returning to the scene of their offensive downturn, the Lady Hornets took their early-game offensive struggles to a new extreme.
Facing a good, but not great, Kearney team, Chillicothe scored only two points – a basket by Shannon Baker – in the first quarter and trailed by 18 after it and
39-13 at halftime.
Although it made precious little difference, the Lady Hornets did manage to save some face. They outscored the Lady Bulldogs 15-9 in the third quarter and prevented use of the “running clock” rule, but it didn’t change an ugly 57-37 defeat.
Now 6-11 on the season with eight losses in their last nine outings, the Lady Hornets face a tough three-game week which threatens to only make things worse if Chillicothe doesn’t rediscover its late December and early January panache.
Class 3 state-ranked Maryville will visit the CHS gym tomorrow night, followed by a Thursday game at Savannah and Saturday contest back home in Chillicothe – albeit at the middle school fieldhouse – against Kirksville.
In addition to taking on a Lady Spoofhounds club having a very strong season, the Lady Hornets will have to call on a Savannah club which, after trailing 21/2 minutes into the second half, ended up clubbing them by 22 in Chillicothe in mid-December. At the end of the week will be a Kirksville program which has been a strong one for the most of the past 10-15 years.
Friday’s loss at Kearney had a familiar secondary theme to go with Chillicothe’s too-common offensive shortcomings. That was an inability to effectively defend both the inside and outside at the same time.
Burned by allowing wide-open 3-point shots time and again during its struggles since previously going to Kearney, Chillicothe let KHS guard Allison Paul set an immediate tone by knocking down a trey to open the game’s scoring. Paul would go on to ring up nine of her team’s 20 first-stanza points, then knock down two more 3-balls and nine points points in the second segment.
When the Lady Hornets would scramble to try to deny Paul, other Kearney players inevitably were left floating free and the ball sent to them. As a result, five Lady Bulldogs were involved in the first-quarter onslaught. Then, in the second period, when Paul wasn’t lighting it up, two teammates joined her in pumping in shots from outside the arc.
By halftime, Kearney had made five of 11 3-point tries – compared to Chillicothe’s none of four – while netting 12 of 20 shots from shorter range as it romped to the 26-point lead.
With little incentive to mentally stay on top of its game, Kearney faded to 31 percent overall shooting after intermission while Chillicothe improved to 47 percent – including hitting two of four 3-point shots. The switch only made minimal difference as the Lady Hornets were able to outscore the hosts only 24-18 over the last 16 minutes, leaving still a 20-point final gap.
Statistically, Paul was the big story, going three of five from downtown and eight of 13 overall while ringing up a game-high 20 points. She narrowly missed a double-double, yanking down nine rebounds. According to CHS statisticians, Kearney had a 32-23 advantage in caroms grabbed.
Reserve Michaela Brinkley supplemented Paul with 11 points, four steals, and four assists and Cassidy Lee had 10 points.