Despite having a gap in their usual starting lineup, the Perryville Lady Pirates wasted no time in taking control against visiting Jefferson on Jan. 15 at the Perry Park Center in Perryville, roaring to a 24-11 lead in the first quarter.
By halftime, they led 40- 22, well on their way to an eventual 67-50 victory.
“We felt like we could pressure them into some turnovers,” said Perryville coach Jason Dreyer, “and try to get up and down with them, try to make it a fast-paced game. That’s exactly what happened.”
With junior Zoe Hoehn out with an injury, sophomore Ava Robles stepped up to lend a hand.
“Ava and some other girls off the bench really stepped up,” Dreyer said. “Everybody really stepped up in Zoe’s absence, and I think the first half was probably the best half of basketball we’ve played all season.”
Perryville led 40-22 at the half, led by 16 points from junior Aby Amberger and 11 from junior Janie Porter. Amberger finished with a game-high 25 points, while Porter finished with 23.
“A lot of their points that they got were created off of our defense getting turnovers and getting out and running,” Dreyer said. “Janie and Aby are really, really good when out in transition. They’re pretty hard to stop. That was kind of our goal is turning them over and getting down and running. Those two did a great job of that.”
As for the Lady Bluejays, seniors Peyton Guffey and Halayna Loyd finished with 13 points each, followed by sophomore Avery Humphrey with 11.
“They’ve got four really good seniors that have been playing varsity basketball for probably three or four years,” Dreyer said. “We did a really good job of crowding all of them in the first half. We didn’t play a great second half, but we did enough to keep the lead a double-digit lead throughout the entire second half.”
After the half, Jefferson found a different gear defensively, holding the Lady Pirates (7-5) to just 12 points in the third quarter and 16 in the fourth. Despite that effort, the Lady Bluejays couldn’t overcome the early deficit.
“We tried to do a couple things differently on defense that we’re going to maybe have to do later on in the season,” Dreyer said. “It was something new that we just kind of threw on the girls and saw how they did. Obviously, it’s something that we’ll just have to keep working on.”
PERRYVILLE 66, HERCULANEUM 24
Defense was the name of the game for the Perryville Lady Pirates in a 42-point victory over the Herculaneum Lady Blackcats (2-10) on Jan. 12 at the Perry Park Center in Perryville.
“We came in, and we knew that they had been struggling all season,” Dreyer said. “We just talked about getting off to a fast start and not trying not to give them any hope.”
The Lady Pirates did just that, building a 49-12 lead by halftime.
“We did that essentially really well,” Dreyer said. “Offensively, we were really aggressive and got a ton of offensive rebounds that gave us some extra opportunities to score. I felt like we played well and we did what we were supposed to do there in the first half.”
Nine of Perryville’s 10 players scored in the game, led by junior Aby Amberger’s 21 points. Junior Zoe Hoehn added 13.
“When we get off to start like that, it’s always nice to have everybody get extra playing time to just keep getting more depth and more experience,” Dreyer said. “It was a good game for that.”
The second half was played under a running clock, and Dreyer said he took advantage of the big halftime lead to go deeper into his bench.
“We got a lot of subs in, and a couple girls that don’t play a lot got some more experience,” Dreyer said. “Games like that will help our depth here coming up the rest of the season and on into next year.”
Herculaneum was led by senior Zoey Embree with 11 points and senior Macy Pope with 9.
