Lady Bulldogs bully Lady Trojans in 43-16 conference victory
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ST. IGNATIUS — After a 41-23 uninspiring loss to the Lady Red Devils in Noxon to start the week, the Lady Bulldogs flat got after the Lady Trojans to pick up their first conference win of the season.
At home Saturday, the Lady Bulldogs were ferocious on defense, not allowing a Lady Trojan to bring the ball up the court unharassed and crashing after every rebound or loose ball. Their tenacious defense limited Troy to only seven points in the second half as they cruised to a 41-23 redeeming victory.
“We wrote on the board before the game we want to play hard, play smart and play together and I thought we did all those things,” Mission coach Les Rice said. “Everything we kind of talked about played out tonight.”
Sophomore Ashley Courville led the Bulldogs with a career-high 14 points on 4-for-4 shooting from 2-point range and 2-for-3 shooting behind the 3-point arc. Five of Courville’s points came late in the second quarter after the Lady Trojan’s went on a 7-0 run to narrow the Lady Bulldogs’ lead to 14-9. In an 8-0 Mission run to end the half Courville banked a jumper in to stop a scoring drought for Mission and hit her second 3-pointer of the game to give the Lady Bulldogs a 20-9 lead with just more than a minute to play in the half.
“I was more impressed with her defense. She was flat getting after it,” Rice said. “I thought Ashley really brought that level of ‘man we’re going to guard them.’”
Heading into the third quarter with a 22-9 lead, the Lady Bulldogs sealed the victory by holding the Lady Trojans to only a single point in the third quarter – a free throw at 6:21. Senior Katie McDonald scored six of the Lady Bulldogs’ seven points in the third quarter and finished with nine points. Four of McDonald points in the quarter were on layups after a Lady Bulldog steal. McDonald’s second basket gave Mission a 27-10 lead with less than two minutes to play and came after Kyla Mitchell ran almost the length of the court and dove to the ground to pick up a loose ball. Mitchell finished with three points.
The Lady Bulldogs shot nearly 50 percent from 2-point range, connecting on 16 of their 34 shots. Adessa Durglo finished with seven points and Rachel Jensen added six. LaGlenn Mitchell pitched in with four.
Rice said that while his team played hard in the nonconference loss in Noxon, they didn’t play like they did against Troy.
“We played hard, but we didn’t play hard enough....They (Noxon) shot better than use, they played better than us and they played smarter than us,” Rice said. “We just didn’t show up with the same amount of enthusiasm as we did tonight.”
The Lady Bulldogs missed on all nine of their 3-point attempts in Noxon and only connected on 11 of their 45 shots from 2-point range. They only went 1-for-8 from the foul line, with their seven misses being “flat ugly,” Rice said.
Jensen led the Lady Bulldogs with seven points and Durglo added six. Courville, McDonald, Brianne Steele, Mackenzie Trudeau and Bella Dally finished with two points apiece.
The Lady Bulldogs (3-5, 1-2) travel to Plains Thursday and host the Ladyhawks Saturday. Both games are conference games.
“If we get the effort like we did tonight, we’ll be in there,” Rice said.
Summary
Noxon 41, Mission 23
Mission 4 7 10 2–23
Noxon 7 13 14 7–41
MISSION - Ashley Courville 2, Adessa Durglo 6, Rachel Jensen 7, Brianne Steele 2, Mackenzie Trudeau 2, Katie McDonald 2, Bella Dally 2.
NOXON - Kim Marich 5, Karland Therian 2, Ashley Wiltse 12, Stephanie Larkin 13, Rachael Stettler 2, Kara Stettler 7.
Mission 43, Troy 16
Troy 2 7 1 6–16
Mission 9 13 7 14–43
TROY - Allie Maestas 4, Alyssa Olds 1, Natassha Hines 2, Cassidy Hand 2, Jackie Pepiot 7.
MISSION - Kyla Mitchell 3, Adessa Durglo 7, Rachel Jensen 6, Katie McDonald 9, Ashley Courville 14, LaGlenn Mitchell 4.
