Girls basketball: Ottawa, Morris win final pool play games at Lady Pirate Tournament

OTTAWA — On the final day of pool play at the Ottawa Lady Pirate Holiday Tournament in Kingman Gym, the host Pirates used a huge second-quarter advantage to defeat rival Streator, while Morris held off a furious comeback by Princeton to eventually post a two-point victory.

The tournament moves to bracket play on Thursday. In the Bronze Bracket, Streator plays Pontiac at 1:30 p.m. and Newark takes on Prairie Central at 5 p.m. in Love Gym. In the Silver Bracket, Illinois Valley Central plays Joliet Catholic Academy at 3 p.m., while La Salle-Peru battles Princeton at 4:30 p.m. Then in the Gold Bracket, Morris plays Canton at 6 p.m., followed by Ottawa taking on Metamora at 7:30 p.m.

Ottawa 54, Streator 17

The Pirates led 9-5 after the opening eight minutes but outscored the Bulldogs 18-2 in the second quarter to take control.

Skylar Dorsey scored a game-high 17, including knocking down five 3-pointers, to lead the hosts. Kendall Lowery added 10 points, four rebounds and four steals, while Ashlynn Ganiere had eight points, four assists and four steals. Addy Miller chipped in a pair of 3s for six points.

[ Photos: Ottawa vs Streator girls basketball in the Ottawa Lady Pirate Holiday Tournament ]

“We were lackadaisical in our full-court defensive end in the opening quarter with some of the things we wanted to do,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “Our communication was lacking, and we weren’t patient on offense. We addressed those things in the time out before the second quarter and were much better from there on out.

“The goal coming into tonight was to take care of our business and get to the gold bracket semifinal. Ashlynn had a pretty solid game; Skylar shot the ball really well and Addy Miller came off the bench and knocked down a couple of threes which was great to see.”

Streator was paced by five points, nine rebounds and two steals by Leah Krohe, while Maiya Lansford (three rebounds, two steals) and Mina James had four points each. Shantell Morton also grabbed eight rebounds.

“The play from our guards continues to improve and I believe part of that is that the play from our post players is getting stronger as well,” Streator coach Jacob Durdan said of the positives he saw from the game. “We’re not blessed with height, so we have to work the ball around and work to get each other open. We are working on getting everyone involved on the offensive end and I’ve been seeing progress with every game we play.

“Today we had an OK first quarter, but Ottawa cranked up the pressure in the second quarter and we really struggled to handle it.”

Morris 47, Princeton 45

After a back-and-forth opening half, Morris exploded to a 17-0 run to start the third quarter to lead 41-27. Princeton’s Camryn Driscoll swished a 35-footer at the horn to break the streak.

The Tigresses were able to slice the lead to one with 23 seconds left, but two free throws from Landrie Callahan and another from Alyssa Jepson kept Morris ahead.

Landrie Callahan finished with 24 points with Layken Callahan adding 15.

“We played (Princeton) two weeks or so ago and we saw how scrappy of a team they are,” Morris coach Nick Virgl said. “Their full-court press gave us all kinds of trouble in the first half, and we just didn’t take care of the ball like we should. Then on the other end we were giving up easy baskets.

“We made some adjustments and talked about some of those things at halftime and the girls came out and responded. We limited our turnovers and in turn started getting some good looks. We had the height advantage, so we talked about coming out in the third quarter and really making an effort to get the ball into the post.

“We were able to get that big lead, but at least as a coach, I knew Princeton was going to make another run at us and they did.”

[ Photos: Princeton vs Morris girls basketball in the Ottawa Lady Pirate Holiday Tournament ]

Miyah Fox led Princeton with 15 points, followed by 12 points from Driscoll and 11 from Keighley Davis.

“(Morris’s) zone defense to start the second half really took us out of everything we want to do offensively,” Princeton coach Tiffany Gonigam said. “We had a hard time getting passes through, hard time getting to the basketball, and when we did get there, a hard time putting the ball in.

“The key for us getting back in it in the fourth quarter was picking up the pressure and intensity on the defensive end to create some opportunities in transition. Camryn’s shot there at the end of the third kind of shot a little life back into us. I felt like her shot, and then the one to start the fourth really gave us the momentum back.

I’m proud of the girls for fighting back, but we just couldn’t ever get the lead back after a very tough third quarter.