Carissa Richardson and Hailee Parks combined for 38 points to lift the Sullivan Lady Eagles to a 49-31 win and capture the school’s first ever outright Four Rivers Conference championship in basketball during the squad’s game at Pacific High School on Thursday night.
Despite jumping out to a 9-0 lead, Sullivan would have problems closing out the game early as the Pacific quickly got back in the game and was within four after the first quarter, 11-7.
Neither team seemed to get settled into their game plans early on, but it was evident that Sullivan wanted to go inside as Richardson dropped in 12 of her 16 points in the first half. The Eagles also had success on defense, creating 20 turnovers on the night.
“We didn’t play our best basketball by any means tonight,” said Sullivan head coach Jason Merkel following the game, “but we won by 18 and were able to make plays when it counted.”
In the second quarter it looked as if the Eagles would close the door on the Lady Indians as they got off to a 9-2 run, but Pacific would answer back and kept the game within reach 28-17 at the half.
“Our defense really helped us out tonight,” Merkel said. “We didn’t give anything up too easy on the inside and we were able to create some turnovers.
In the second half Parks took over for the Eagles and dropped in 8 of the team’s 10 points in the quarter and helped Sullivan maintain a 38-27 lead going into the fourth quarter.
One thing missing on the night was the outside shooting from the Eagles. Sullivan wouldn’t convert from beyond the arc until Monica Pyrtle dropped in a shot with 2:19 left in the game.
“That is part of our game that we have to make sure that we have – the ability to hit shots from the outside,” Merkel said. “We didn’t do a very good job with that tonight, but that’s fine. If we’re cold tonight we’re going to heat up another night.”
With the win Sullivan moved to 20-3 on the season and will have Monday and Tuesday off before trying to uphold the number one seed in the district tournament with a semi-final game on Wednesday, Feb.. 25 at 6 p.m. at Union High School.
“This is the fun part,” Merkel said of the district tournament. “Everyone gets excited and is ready to play because you know if you lose you’re going home.
“We’re going to make sure that we’re ready to play so that’s not us. We’re real excited about next week.”