Defensive efforts by Maryville put them past Savannah

By Dustin Henggeler

In their last regular season game of 2018, the Maryville Spoofhounds girls basketball team put away a 52-36 victory over the Savannah Savages on December 20 at Maryville High School.

Led by their go-getting defensive efforts, the Spoofhounds utilized transition possessions to earn points and offensive control.

“We made a conscious decision to come in and really switch up things with our defense,” Maryville Head Coach Quentin Albrecht said. “We’ve pretty much run the same way every game this year, and after losing three in a row before tonight, we decided that we’ve got to do something a little different. It worked for us tonight because the things we were doing confused them a little bit.”

Maryville’s early press reaped the benefits in the later part of the first quarter as the Spoofhounds broke away from the Savages for an 11-4 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

That pressure built into the second quarter as Maryville sent their lead into double-digits led by Serena Sundell and Emily Cassavaugh whose performances inside the lane dominated on both sides of the ball. Savannah strung together a small streak of their own to get back within nine, but Maryville once again took control and doubled up to a 30-16 lead by halftime.

An early second-half 3-pointer by Emma Baldwin set the tone for yet another quarter of Maryville-domination as Savannah struggled early to move the ball across the court. The Hounds built a 20-point lead into the final two minutes of the third quarter, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Savannah helped close the gap to 41-28 heading into the fourth quarter.

Savannah never let up in their quest to close the deficit behind Maryville, but the Spoofhounds didn’t give it up and completed what they had set out to do in order to snap the three game losing streak.

Cassavaugh’s abilities under the basket allowed her to come away with a team-high 20 points followed by Sundell who scored 17. Baldwin followed up with nine points, Ashlyn Alexander finished with four and Chloe Emery had two points.

“Watching Chloe score her first varsity points was very exciting for our team,” Albrecht said of Emery’s late-game score. “She came in tonight and played some valuable minutes and it was so nice to see a kid, who’s worked so hard, get her moment in the sun tonight. She’s not a ‘look at me’ kind of kid, but is a very hard worker on this team.”

With more yet to accomplish in 2018, the Spoofhounds turn their attention to the LeBlond Holiday Tournament, December 27-29, in St. Joseph. With their sights set on some holiday hardware, Albrecht and the squad will have their work cut out for them, but have a steady shot at making their wish come true. They begin play December 27 against KC East at 1 pm.