By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The current iteration of the Southwest Conference has existed for five years, and one school has been firmly at the top since the beginning.
Miller’s girls basketball team made it five conference championships in a row on Tuesday night with a 57-32 win against Marionville as the Cardinals completed another unbeaten run.
But after last year’s 23-4 season and fourth-straight title, it looked like a tall order for Miller to repeat again this winter.
The Cardinals graduated Class 2 All-State performer Claudia Hadlock, who averaged 17.5 points per game. They graduated Kaylee Helton, a two time all-state pick who was an all-district and all-conference player as a senior. And they graduated Payten Richardson, who also nabbed all-district and all-conference honors last season.
That trio alone averaged better than 35 points per game – on a team that averaged 49.
But there were the Cardinals on senior night Tuesday celebrating another title, the team’s third straight won outright. And Miller hasn’t lost a Southwest Conference game in more than two dozen contests.
“It’s all of us being unselfish,” head coach Ryan White said. “We were losing 3,000 points, we’re not going to gain all that back by one person going and getting 40 a night. Let’s be unselfish, let’s pass the ball more than we have in the past and you can see that with our stats. Everybody’s very close to 10 points a game in our starting five. Even though you might be our best offensive weapon, you still need to pass because we want everyone getting involved and I thought that was the best way to build confidence for our freshmen and for seniors who didn’t get to shoot it a lot last year. It’s worked out so far.”
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Tuesday was another balanced scoring attack for Miller, now 22-4 and ranked fourth in Class 2. Senior Alyssa Hill led the way with 16 points, freshman Rachel Nunez scored 11, sophomore Kendall Neely had nine, freshmen Loghann Leivan and Ashlynn Helton each had eight and senior Haylie Schnake added five.
“No one cares about getting their own and that’s super helpful,” said Hill, a three-year starter who was the team’s leading returning scorer coming into the season. “Everyone flows together well, they buy into the defense and they buy into the offense and that’s crucial to work together.”
“I don’t even really know how to put it in words,” she said of the program’s fifth-straight championship. “You don’t realize how big of a deal it is until you get the opportunity to do it … seeing everyone work together and accomplish something we all worked hard for is just amazing.”
Beyond the unselfish play, the Cardinals have focused on playing good man-to-man defense, taking good shots and limiting turnovers. The formula worked again against Marionville.
Miller led 11-6 after a quarter and then outscored the Comets 19-10 in the second to take a double-digit lead. The Cardinals made 9-of-12 free throw attempts in the first half and Neely scored all nine of her points before the break.
Hill made two 3-pointers in the third quarter and Nunez scored two field goals in the final 66 seconds for a 46-24 lead with one quarter left.
And Miller only allowed two field goals in the first quarter, two in the second, three in the third and two in the fourth. No Marionville player reached double figures.
“We’re going to find your best player and try to take them out,” White said. “Lucy Newberry’s a good basketball player and she’s averaging 20. For a week now we said she doesn’t score 10 points, that’s our goal. If your best player doesn’t score 10 points, we have a chance and they did that.”
Newberry was held to seven points for the Comets, while Anna Bright scored nine and Maggie Murphy added eight.
“This was a good one, we won it,” Hill said. “Getting to do it with these girls, especially, is very exciting. It’s a lot of fun.”
