El Dorado Springs built an early lead and withstood a late Republic rally Tuesday night, defeating the Lady Tigers 51-44 in Tori Mooneyham’s head coaching debut.
El Dorado Springs led 12-10 after the first quarter and extended the advantage to 28-21 at halftime. They pushed the lead to 38-28 heading into the fourth quarter before Republic mounted a comeback, cutting the deficit to three points on two different occasions.
“I’m proud of them for that. They’re always going to play hard,” Mooneyham said. “But when we got in that position down three, there’s not much varsity experience on that floor.”
Republic turned the ball over without getting a shot on both possessions when trailing by three, and the Lady Bulldogs quickly built the lead back to seven points to regain control.
Republic struggled to contain El Dorado Springs’ speed and quickness, switching between man-to-man and zone defenses throughout the game.
“We tried to switch in and out of man and zone, and they’re just hard to match up with,” Mooneyham said. “Early, it kind of worked, and then (El Dorado Springs) did something different, and we didn’t adjust well to that.”
Mooneyham said the Lady Tigers will need to improve in areas they can control.
“We kind of struggled a little bit with our game plan,” she said. “The kids that we knew would get their points did, and we knew that was going to happen, but the things that we could control, we just didn’t do a good job at.”
Republic will return to action in the Stephanie Phillips Classic at Kickapoo High School.
Republic scoring: Lanney Strong 13, Cora Cutbirth 11, Annabelle Gerhardt-Hobbs 5, Kaylee Cornelsen 4, Sammi Watson 4, Awbree Berning 3, Addie Brown 2, Josie Stalzer 2.
