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The Pilot Grove boys and girls basketball teams couldn’t have asked for a better Homecoming Friday night while hosting the Higbee Tigers, which also happened to be the CCAA opener.
While the Lady Tigers throttled Higbee 72-35, the Pilot Grove boys had a little tougher time while holding off Higbee in the final period for a 67-61 victory.
The Lady Tigers, improving to 11-8 on the season, outscored Higbee in each of the four quarters of play and led 23-9 after one, 42-19 at the half and 61-30 after three quarters of play. Meanwhile, in the final period, Pilot Grove held a 11-5 advantage to win the game by 37.
Pilot Grove coach Landon Daniel said the first CCAA conference game of the year, and Homecoming, couldn’t have gone much better.
“A great team effort by our girls,” stated Daniel. “We started the game wanting to push the tempo on offense and just play solid defense and we did just that. We finally had a great shooting night as a whole team, catching the ball ready to shoot on a pass and ended up with 23 total assists as a team. Other than shooting 8 for 20 from the free-throw line, this was a complete game for us and a great momentum and confidence booster for us and we need to carry that on to our next varsity game on Tuesday against Otterville at home.”
Melissa Schlotzhauer led three players in double figures for Pilot Grove, 11-8 overall and 1-0 in the CCAA, with 15 points along with seven assists and one rebound.
Kerigan Wessing finished the game with 11 points, five rebounds, five assists, four steals and one blocked shot while Hailey Bader added 10 points, five rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocked shots, Kellie Dillner with nine points, six rebounds, two assists and one steal, McKalie Lorenz with eight points and four rebounds, McKenzi Schuster with five points, five assists, three steals and one rebound, Kori Marshall with four points, six rebounds, two steals and one assist, Randi Kellerman with four points, seven rebounds, one steal and one blocked shot, Kennedy Gerling with four points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal and Lauren Vollrath with two points and three rebounds.
For Higbee, Cayla Parsons had eight points and Hope Clark six.
As for the Pilot Grove boys, they led Higbee 32-30 at the half and 53-41 after three quarters of play. However, in the final period, Higbee rallied back with a 20-12 scoring edge to cut the lead back to six.
Pilot Grove coach Rick Grunden said the win tonight was entirely dependent on the Tigers intensity.
The Pilot Grove boys and girls basketball teams couldn’t have asked for a better Homecoming Friday night while hosting the Higbee Tigers, which also happened to be the CCAA opener.
While the Lady Tigers throttled Higbee 72-35, the Pilot Grove boys had a little tougher time while holding off Higbee in the final period for a 67-61 victory.
The Lady Tigers, improving to 11-8 on the season, outscored Higbee in each of the four quarters of play and led 23-9 after one, 42-19 at the half and 61-30 after three quarters of play. Meanwhile, in the final period, Pilot Grove held a 11-5 advantage to win the game by 37.
Pilot Grove coach Landon Daniel said the first CCAA conference game of the year, and Homecoming, couldn’t have gone much better.
“A great team effort by our girls,” stated Daniel. “We started the game wanting to push the tempo on offense and just play solid defense and we did just that. We finally had a great shooting night as a whole team, catching the ball ready to shoot on a pass and ended up with 23 total assists as a team. Other than shooting 8 for 20 from the free-throw line, this was a complete game for us and a great momentum and confidence booster for us and we need to carry that on to our next varsity game on Tuesday against Otterville at home.”
Melissa Schlotzhauer led three players in double figures for Pilot Grove, 11-8 overall and 1-0 in the CCAA, with 15 points along with seven assists and one rebound.
Kerigan Wessing finished the game with 11 points, five rebounds, five assists, four steals and one blocked shot while Hailey Bader added 10 points, five rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocked shots, Kellie Dillner with nine points, six rebounds, two assists and one steal, McKalie Lorenz with eight points and four rebounds, McKenzi Schuster with five points, five assists, three steals and one rebound, Kori Marshall with four points, six rebounds, two steals and one assist, Randi Kellerman with four points, seven rebounds, one steal and one blocked shot, Kennedy Gerling with four points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal and Lauren Vollrath with two points and three rebounds.
For Higbee, Cayla Parsons had eight points and Hope Clark six.
As for the Pilot Grove boys, they led Higbee 32-30 at the half and 53-41 after three quarters of play. However, in the final period, Higbee rallied back with a 20-12 scoring edge to cut the lead back to six.
Pilot Grove coach Rick Grunden said the win tonight was entirely dependent on the Tigers intensity.
“When we could keep our own personal intensity up, we did some things well,” Grunden said. “In fact, we played better at times than we had recently. We did a much better job in transition tonight. Overall, our players did what they had to do to get the win and that is ultimately all that matters. I was very proud of our effort and our hard work all the way to the whistle each time. It was a good Homecoming win for us.”
Kendall Kraus had 19 points to lead all scorers for Higbee. Dylan Twenter chipped in 16, Colton Glenn 15, Trevor Day 12, Sean Lorenz four and Jake Leverton with one.
For Higbee, Mateo Dias and Logan Thompson each had 16 points.
In junior varsity on Saturday, the Lady Tigers defeated Smith-Cotton’s JV 47-15.
Pilot Grove opened the first half with a 19-10 lead against Smith-Cotton and then outscored the Lady Tigers 28-5 in the second half for the victory.
Coach Daniel said the JV team continues to get stronger and stronger as the years goes on, which is eactly what is supposed to happen at this level. “We started a little slow, which was expected as the tip-off was at 9 a.m., and we are by no means “early risers”,” Daniel said. “Kori Marshall played a great game on both sides of the floor and came away with 16 points and a number of rebounds. Overall, a whole team effort and a nice win against a much larger school for our JV team.”
Kori Marshall had the game-high for Pilot Grove with 16 points. Kennedy Gerling chipped in eight, Kerigan Wessing and Melissa Schlotzhauer six each, Randi Kellerman five and McKenzi Schuster, McKalie Lorenz and Lauren Vollrath each with two points.
The Pilot Grove boys junior varsity basketball team also won on the road against Smith-Cotton's JV 55-49.
Pilot Grove trailed Smith-Cotton 25-13 at the half but outscored the Tigers 42-24 in the second half for the victory.
Pilot Grove coach Rick Grunden said after a slow first half the boys played better defense in the third and opened up a seven-point lead. "In the fourth we held on for the win," Grunden said. "Our young players played very well on the road."
Alex Twenter paced all scorers in the game for Pilot Grove with 20 points. Jake Leverton chipped in 16, Keaton Vollrath 10, Trevor Day five, Scott Slank three and Brandon Brown with one.
For Sedalia Smith-Cotton, Indaqual Pressberry tossed in 17 points.
