By Don Eskins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Blue Eye Lady Bulldogs rolled over Sparta’s Lady Trojans 65-54, Monday night in Blue Eye, to run their seasonal mark up to 16-4.
More importantly the victory was a conference win for the Lady Bulldogs, which left them sitting on top of the SWCL standings at a perfect 3-0.
“This was a big conference win for our girls tonight and we’re right where we want to be,” said Blue Eye head coach Ken Elfrink. “Right now, at 3-0, we’re in the SWCL’s driver’s seat. We’ve got some big games coming up so our kids are just going to have to keep playing hard and we’ll see what happens.”
Blue Eye outscored Sparta in every quarter Monday night and after two frames of play found themselves out in front of the Lady Trojans 31-22 as the two teams took the halftime break.
The Lady Trojans rallied to cut the lead to as little as eight points in both the third and four quarter but each time they threatened the Bulldogs lead Blue Eye responded.
The Lady Bulldogs led 48-38 after three quarters of play en route to closing Sparta out by eleven points, 65-54.
Blue Eye senior guard Kohnnar Patton sizzled on the offense side of the game dropping in a game high 30 points. Patton hit four three’s and four of five free throws in leading the Bulldogs to the win.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
“We beat Sparta in the final of their invitational about three weeks ago on a last second shot,” said Elfrink. “They played us very tough there so we were expecting to see their best effort when they came to our place tonight.”
“Coach Loveland does a great job with his kids over there so we knew we’d better be ready to play,” the Bulldog coach said. “They did play hard and they did put up a good fight but our girls were up to the challenge.”
“We went into tonight’s game well prepared,” said Patton. “We knew we’d have to play good on the defensive side of the ball and go strong to the boards to beat them. That’s exactly what we did and we got the win.”
Blue Eye’s Avery Arnold also had a big night offensively. The sophomore guard scored 17.
Leading the way for the Lady Trojans was freshman Laney Humble with 22 points. Also scoring in double figures was Megan Brown, also a freshman, with ten.
“We were hoping to come in here and get a little payback after having lost to Blue Eye in our invitational final a few weeks ago,” said Sparta head coach Josh Loveland. “But we gave up too many offensive boards and put backs tonight and it cost us.”
“But all in all it was a fun game and I have a lot of respect for coach Elfrink. He always has his kids ready to play,” said Loveland. “Now we have to regroup and get ready for our next one.”
The Lady Trojans are 13-7 on the year and 2-1 in SWCL play.
Box Score
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Sparta 8 14 16 16 54
Blue Eye 13 18 17 17 65
Leading Scorers
Blue Eye: Kohnnar Patton- 30/Avery Arnold- 17/Makayla Johnson- 8/Kyla Warren- 5/Riley Arnold- 5. FT’s- 11/16/69%
Sparta: Laney Humble- 22/Megan Brown- 10/Shelby McMurry- 8/Alyssa Diers- 8/Natalie Wilks -4/Brynn Wilks- 2. FT’s- 6/16/63%
