Lady Jays get back to basics in win against Sullivan

The Jefferson City Lady Jays and Sullivan Lady Eagles warm up at Fleming Fieldhouse prior to their basketball contest on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017.
The Jefferson City Lady Jays and Sullivan Lady Eagles warm up at Fleming Fieldhouse prior to their basketball contest on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017.

Coming off their first loss of the season Monday night, the Jefferson City Lady Jays vowed to get back to work.

On Tuesday, they had what coach Brad Conway described as "their toughest practice of the season."

On Thursday, that work paid off as Jefferson City doubled-up the Sullivan Lady Eagles 44-22 in a clash of state-ranked teams at Fleming Fieldhouse.

"After Monday, we got back to basics," Conway said. "We weren't playing defense the way we wanted to play it, so we got back to making sure we were doing what we wanted to do.

"The kids paid attention to that tough practice Tuesday and it showed. We did a good job of bouncing back from Monday night."

Jefferson City never trailed in the game. It was a bit of a muddled first quarter as the teams combined for nine turnovers as the Lady Jays took an 11-8 advantage into the second period.

Things began to click in the second quarter. After Sullivan hit a free throw to make it 11-9 with 7:16 to go before half, the Lady Jays did not allow the Lady Eagles to score another point the rest of the quarter.

Sullivan was 0-of-7 from the field in the quarter, including an 0-of-6 performance on 3s. The Lady Eagles were 1-of-10 from beyond the arc in the half.

"We worked against it, we knew they relied heavily on the 3," Conway said. "We concentrated on making sure our communication was good and we got a hand up defensively."

Jefferson City scored the final 10 points of the half. McKenzie Gourley's drive and short jumper with :02 left gave the Lady Jays a 21-9 lead at intermission.

The Lady Jays dominated defensively again in the third quarter, holding the Lady Eagles scoreless for nearly five minutes to take a 35-15 advantage into the final period.

Jefferson City led by as many as 25 points in the fourth quarter before settling on the 22-point final margin.

While pleased the the defense, Conway would like to see a little more production on the offensive end. Jefferson City was 17-of-41 from the field in the game.

"We're executing what we want, we're just not knocking down the shots," he said. "But our defense is giving us some easy opportunities on the offensive end and that helps."

Seven Lady Jays scored at least four points in the contest.

"We shared the ball really well," Conway said.

Micah Linthacum came off the bench to lead Jefferson City with 11 points. It was just her second game of the season after missing the start with an injury.

"I thought her composure was good, she didn't try to rush things," Conway said.

The Lady Jays are also working the previously injured Greta Haarmann and Ileah Chambly back in to the rotation. Haarman had four points and five rebounds Thursday, while Chambly totaled four points and two boards.

"They all three some good things, there are some things that we can work on to improve on during the next few weeks," Conway said.

Sydney Crockett paced Jefferson City with six rebounds.

Mallory Shelley and Jenna Lochner had seven points each for Sullivan (11-3, No. 8 in Class 4). Only four Lady Eagles scored in the game.

Jefferson City (14-1, ranked No. 1 Class 5) is back in action Monday against Helias at Rackers Fieldhouse. The freshman game will start at 4:30 p.m., followed by the junior varsity at 6 p.m. and the varsity around 7:30 p.m.

Jefferson City and Sullivan will meet again Feb. 11 in the rescheduled title game of the Union Tournament.

In Thursday's JV game, Jefferson City defeated Sullivan 34-13. Caitlin Mooney had eight points for the Lady Jays (5-4), who will play Linn on Saturday in the Blair Oaks JV Tournament.