Lady Eagles Finish Strong Against Union For FRC Win
Sullivan strengthened their position in district seeding and at the top of the Four Rivers Conference standings Thursday with a 45-31 victory against Union.
The Lady Eagles (14-7) improved to 3-1 in the FRC. The top of the standings are bottled up — Hermann and St. Clair are 4-1. Sullivan plays on the road this week against St. James and New Haven, then closes out the regular season with Owensville.
Thursday’s win also reversed a trend of opposing teams making big runs at the Lady Eagles.
Sullivan denied a rally from the Lady Wildcats that threatened what had been a double-digit lead late in the third quarter.
Riley Lock’s put-back and Kya Harbour getting one of two free throws on a second chance attempt keyed a 9-0 run for Sullivan and put them in control during the fourth quarter.
“It was a good game,” said Sullivan head coach Jordan Flora. “We knew would Union would be a challenge. They have a lot of good players. I’m definitely pleased with how we played.”
Sullivan struggled early on to handle Union’s pressure. They found themselves down 9-6 at the end of the first quarter. Union stole the ball on the Lady Eagles’ final three possessions.
Emily Gaebe led the way for Union on both ends.
“We knew she liked to attack the rim, so we tried to keep her from that,” Flora said. “We switched to a zone and that helped a ton.”
Sullivan leaned on its defense on a night where they got good looks, but couldn’t convert.
“We went through a stretch where we were shooting really well,” said Flora, whose team had just two 3-pointers against Union. “This isn’t the time of year where you want to slump, but we’re putting more focus on shooting. I’m not worried about it.”
Rylee Denbow tied the game at 11-11 with one of the two Sullivan 3-pointers at the 6:44 mark. Sullivan would lose the ball twice over the next 90 seconds, but gained the lead on a 6-0 run to close. Mallory Shetley’s two free throws with 59 seconds left in the half. The Lady Eagles led 19-14.
Zariah Richards popped a 3 from the corner early in the third period. Shetley had her way with Union as she consistently got into the paint. She scored the next six points, finishing with an up-and-under on a second chance. Sullivan led 26-14 with 5:55 remaining.
Union, which had not scored from the field since the 7:07 mark in the second quarter, finally got on the board with a jumper by Gaebe with 5:41 left in the third.
The Lady Eagles would go on to open a 30-19 lead when Lock zipped a pass from the top of the key to Shetley, who closed out at the rim and got fouled.
Gaebe led the charge for Union, scoring the next five points and cutting the lead to 30-24 with 7:37 left. Lock and Harbour’s points coming off the offensive rebounds pushed the lead to 33-24. Shetley ran off six straight points to increase the advantage to 39-24 with just over two minutes left.