Published: December 01, 2008 01:33 am      

Mt. Vernon finishes eighth at Salem Tournament

By PAUL T. WILCOXEN

paul.wilcoxen@register-news.com

SALEM – After losing to Centralia earlier in the day, which put the Lady Rams fighting for seventh place during the final day of the Lady Wildcat Thanksgiving Tournament, Mt. Vernon head coach Sara Rennie was hoping to see more inspirational play from her team against Carlyle, but in the end the Lady Rams finished in eighth place for the third time in the last five years after losing to the Lady Indians, 59-47.

“I really think we were taken aback at how hard Carlyle was playing,” said Rennie. “You kind of walked out on the floor against a team you’ve beaten a week ago [and] you mentally might not be the one that’s ready to play. And shame on us if that happened because it shouldn’t have happened.”

Earlier in the day, Mt. Vernon lost to the Annies, 50-37, which put the Lady Rams in the seventh-place game against Carlyle.

“I just don’t think we were patient enough in our half court to wait for some things that could have opened,” said Rennie. “We needed to make some more passes and we needed to set some more screens.”

The Rams found it difficult to knock down shots against Centralia, but the telltale point to Mt. Vernon’s loss was the defensive effort put forth by Centralia on leading scorer Mariah Fleming.

“We had some problems trying to solve that box-and-1 defense on Mariah and there were times where [we] were basically playing without her and we shouldn’t have been,” said Rennie. “It was hard for us to get her the ball and they did a good job on her.”

Mt. Vernon knocked down 14 of 50 shots from the floor, with Fleming held to 10 points (13 below her early season average) on 3 of 11 shooting from the field.

“We were in too big of a hurry, especially after the first half, and we were content to shoot the first of second shot that was open and the shots didn’t go in,” said Rennie. “It was just one of those situations where…Centralia outplayed us, they out-rebounded us and defensively they did a good job of taking out our leading scorer.”

The game was tied at 11 after the first quarter and the Lady Rams took a 16-15 lead after a baseline jumper by Moriah Kirkpatrick put Mt. Vernon ahead.

But after Centralia scored the next eight points to move ahead 23-16, the Annies would never relinquish the lead the rest of the way.

“Rebounding was the number one key,” said Rennie. “We didn’t go to the boards very well and Centralia did. They out-hustled us on every shot. They played hard on the boards…and we didn’t and that was the biggest difference.”

So after losing to Centralia, Mt. Vernon played Carlyle, the Lady Rams’ first opponent in the tournament and a team they beat, 41-36.

“Carlyle had a lot of momentum,” said Rennie. “They didn’t want to be winless here in this tournament and they played hard. They executed a pretty good game plan against us.

“They beat us in transition numerous times and I felt we were the quicker, more athletic team out there, yet they were beating us in transition and I think it all kind of went downhill from there.”

On the defensive end, the Lady Rams had no answer for Carlyle’s Ashlee Johnson, who had her way on the court with an 8 of 16 shooting clip and 12 of 13 from the free throw line for a game-high 29 points.

“I’m really happy for the girls, they played really hard,” said Carlyle coach Dan Weihle. “They wanted this one [and] you could see it. We really had a bad game [Saturday] morning and they came out and played well.

“They really shut out Fleming, who’s just as good as anybody in this tournament.”

In the second half the Lady Rams would fight their way back into striking distance with a 10-0 lead to cut Carlyle’s lead to 34-31 with 3:35 left in the third quarter.

Fleming opened the scoring run with a three, followed by a basket on the post from Ronita Long a free throw by Kirkpatrick, a steal by Jacquelyn Backstrom at midcourt, which led to a lay-up by Haley Randolph and a field goal from Kirkpatrick led to the Lady Rams cutting a 31-21 half time deficit into a three-point game.

A three from Paige Mueller after a Lady Indians’ time out helped cool the waters, but Mt. Vernon was back to within three, 39-36, after Randolph knocked down a three with 1:47 to play.

But as the game progressed into the fourth quarter, the Lady Rams were unable to knock down shots, going 4 of 14 from the field in the final eight minutes, while seven of the last nine points scored in the game were from the free throw line by the Lady Indians.

“They shot pretty well,” said Rennie of Carlyle. “Some of our shots weren’t falling early and there’s a mentality there, too. If some of those shots fall and you get yourself a lead you can relax and it’s certainly a lot easier to play from the lead than it is to play from behind. I think that gave Carlyle a little bit momentum. They were playing with the lead and we were back on our heels a bit playing from behind.”

Fleming led the Lady Rams with 18 points. Long totaled 17 and pulled down 13 boards.

Mt. Vernon (1-4) will play tonight at Cahokia.





MT. VERNON (47) – Haley Randolph 2-9 0-0 5, Jacquelyn Backstrom 1-8 0-0 2, Mariah Fleming 5-12 4-4 18, Moriah Kirkpatrick 1-9 1-2 3, Ronita Long 7-11 3-7 17, Alaina Reeves 0-5 0-0 0, Cheyenne Piper 1-3 0-0 2, Jessica Green 0-1 0-0 0, Beloved Porter 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 17-57 (.298) FG, 8-13 (.615) FT, 47 TP.

CARLYLE (59) – Emily Seiffert 3-12 0-0 6, Maddie Beckmann 1-4 5-6 7, Jolyn Alexander 0-5 0-0 0, Ashlee Johnson 8-16 12-13 29, Emily Walker 3-11 0-0 6, Nicole Schaeffer 2-6 0-0 4, Paige Mueller 2-4 1-2 7. Totals: 19-58 (.328) FG, 18-21 (.857) FT, 59 TP.

Mt. Vernon. . .4 17 17 9 – 47

Carlyle. . . .12 19 15 13 - 59

3-pointers: Mt. Vernon 5-19 (Randolph 1-2, Fleming 4-9, Kirkpatrick 0-2, Reeves 0-3); Carlyle 2-5 (Seiffert 0-1, Beckmann 0-1, Walker 0-1, Mueller 2-2). Rebounds: Mt. Vernon 29 (Long 13), Carlyle 43 (Johnson 18). Turnovers: Mt. Vernon 12, Carlyle 11. Team fouls: Mt. Vernon 18 (Randolph 4, Fleming 4); Carlyle 11 (Walker 3).



CENTRALIA (50) – Hannah Shores 1-7 2-2 4, Anica Shores 2-3 0-2 4, Imari O’Neal 4-9 9-10 16, Ciera Cunningham 3-11 1-1 7, Courtney Herron 7-14 3-8 17, Candace Akins 0-1 0-0 0, Andi Edmonson 0-2 0-0 0, Rachel Rahnke 1-3 0-0 2, Lindsey Branson 0-0 0-0 0, Sadie Taylor 0-0 0-0 0, Sharnirah Willis 0-1 0-0 0, Lexie Wernsman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-51 (.) FG, 15-23 (.) FT, 50 TP.

Mt. VERNON (37) – Haley Randolph 1-2 2-2 4, Mariah Fleming 3-11 3-4 10, Moriah Kirkpatrick 4-14 0-0 9, Jacquelyn Backstrom 2-7 0-4 2, Ronita Long 3-8 2-2 8, Alaina Reeves 1-3 0-0 3, Cheyenne Piper 0-2 0-0 0, Jessica Green 0-2 1-2 1, Sara Palmer 0-0 0-2 2, Meridith Slater 0-0 0-0 0, Beloved Porter 0-1 0-0 0, Alli Reed 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 14-50 (.) FG, 8-16 FT, 37 TP.

Centralia. . .11 12 12 15 – 50

Mt. Vernon.11 9 6 11 – 37

3-pointers: Centralia 0-1 (Anica Shores 0-1); MV 3-17 (Fleming 1-4, Kirkpatrick 1-7, Reeves 1-3, Piper 0-2, Porter 0-1). Rebounds: Centralia 32 (Cunningham 9, Herron 9), Mt. Vernon 30 (Long 9). Turnovers: Centalia 16, Mt. Vernon 20. Team fouls: Centralia 11 (Hannah Shores 3), Mt. Vernon 17 (Backstrom 4). Technical fouls: none.