Inside play lifts Sikeston over Lady Devils, 62-34

Sikeston's Asia Liggins goes up for two of her game-high 22 points Monday night against Chaffee. Liggins also pulled down 15 rebounds.
(Photo by David Jenkins, Staff)

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SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Lady Bulldogs used their distinct height advantage to pound the Chaffee Lady Devils inside on their way to a 62-34 win in front of the home crowd Monday night.

"I thought we played pretty good," said Sikeston coach Homer Jackson. "There were moments where we didn't do the fundamental things like blocking out and giving them extra shots. Those kinds of things we didn't do well and we need to work on that when we get back to practice."

Sikeston showed their dominance in the paint early in the first quarter, building a 14-2 lead at one point and leading 16-5 after one. Much of the damage was done by Sikeston's Asia Liggins who finished the quarter with eight points, on her way to a game-high 22.

"Asia has always been our number one go-to player," Jackson said. "She is our leading scorer but she suffered an asthma attack against Notre Dame (last Thursday) and we are trying to scale her back and push her on offense and save her on defense."

Several of Liggins' shots came on put backs as she grabbed a team-high 15 rebounds as well. When she didn't get her points off the offensive glass, she was given perfect passes from teammate Keyonna Blissett.

"Keyonna is who dictates how everything works for us," Jackson said. "She's our catalyst. A lot of the points Asia got were on direct assists from Keyonna and it was easy for her to score. That is a good tandem to have."

Behind Liggins and Blissett, as well as the hawking defense of Tyanne Townsend, Sikeston continued to build their lead in the second quarter, taking a 35-20 lead at halftime.

"I didn't think we showed up to compete at all," said Chaffee coach Tyson Moyers. "That's my job is to get them ready to compete and I didn't think they were ready. We had been (competing) better since Christmas break but it just wasn't with us tonight."

The second half was more of the same as Sikeston continued to get points in the paint while holding the young Chaffee squad at bay. The deficit could have been larger but the Lady Bulldogs sometimes struggled to find ways to score down low.

"We are going to have to work on that shot right in front of the basket," Jackson said. "We'll practice taking different angles at the basket because we're just shooting it straight on but that is a correctable error."

Besides Liggins, Blissett also scored in double figures for Sikeston, scoring 15 points. Jerrica Taylor pulled down 12 rebounds while Taneshia Pulley grabbed six.

"They beat us inside but that's been our problem all year long," Moyers said. "We just don't have very much size."

Randi Wiley with nine points as Chaffee fell to 1-10 on the season. However the Lady Devils are very young, playing with only two seniors and have four freshmen on their roster.

"The experience our younger girls are getting is very, very important," Moyers said. "Even though we only have 10 players and it is a struggle for us to play JV, we're going to play JV just so they can get as much game experience as possible."

Chaffee won the two quarter junior varsity game 14-12.

Sikeston (3-6) will be back in action on Thursday night when they host Poplar Bluff.

CHAFFEE (34) -- Randi Wiley 9, Adrienne Eichhorn 2, Taylor Kirchdoerfer 8, Anna Ayers 3, Luisa Boschan 3, Ellie Sigman 6, Hannah Bedwell 3. FG 12, FT 6-10, F12. (3-pointers: Kirchdoerfer 2, Boschan 1, Bedwell 1. Fouled out: none).

SIKESTON (62) -- Tyanne Townsend 6, Keyonna Blissett 15, Asia Liggins 22, Jani Ivory 4, Darquesha Howard 3, Jerrica Taylor 6, Shaela Draper 4, Taneshia Pulley 2. FG 26, FT 10-19, F 8. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none).