Girls basketball: Ottawa tops Morris 43-34 for 3rd place at Lady Pirate Holiday Tourney

OTTAWA — It seemed like anytime the Ottawa girls basketball team needed a big basket during Friday’s third-place game of the Ottawa Lady Pirate Holiday Tournament against Morris, the ball seemed to find its way into the hands of Skylar Dorsey behind the 3-point line.

The senior guard knocked down five triples for her game-high 15 points to help the Pirates finish the event with a 43-34 victory to improve to 8-7 on the season.

Morris fell to 13-4.

“I feel like I’ve always been a pretty good shooter from the outside, but last year for whatever reason I just didn’t have the confidence I needed to consistently take those shots,” said Dorsey, who was named to the all-tournament team. “I worked in the offseason on my 3-point shot and so far this season I’ve been able to stay confident and my teammates have done a good job of finding me when I’m open.

“I think we all wanted to be playing in the championship game, but I guess we ended the tournament with a win, so we are all happy about that.”

It wasn’t the prettiest game by any means, but it seemed like when we needed a big stop or a big basket, we were able to get it. Skylar (Dorsey) shot the ball super-well the whole tournament.”

—  Brent Moore, Ottawa girls basketball coach

Ottawa led 11-3 after the opening eight minutes with Dorsey sinking a trey and Ella Schmitz, Kendall Lowery, Hailey Larsen and Ashlyn Ganiere each scoring baskets. A pair of second quarter hoops from Morris’ Lily Hansen, a three-point play from Layken Callahan and a rebound basket from Landrie Callahan was nearly offset by a trio of scores from Lowery as the Pirates led 22-12 at halftime.

“Both teams know each other really well, so I had a pretty good feeling this was going to be like a boxing match with each team knocking each other around for stretches at a time in a low scoring game,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “Morris is a very good team, and the Callahan sisters are the real deal and will be a force to be reckon with for the next few seasons.

“I feel like we had a good game plan against them, and we executed it pretty well. We wanted to slow down the Callahans and make other girls try and beat us. I thought overall we did a good job with that and ended the tournament on a high note.

“It wasn’t the prettiest game by any means, but it seemed like when we needed a big stop or a big basket, we were able to get it. Skylar shot the ball super-well the whole tournament.”

After the teams played even through the third, Morris went on a 7-2 run to slice the deficit to six (34-28) after a layup by Hansen with 4:40 remaining.

Then after sitting for much of the second half with four fouls, Dorsey returned to the floor and swished back-to-back 3s to put the lead back to double figures at 40-28. Ottawa, which missed its first nine free throws, made good on three of six in the finals seconds to keep Morris at arm’s length.

After Dorsey, Lowery finished with nine points and nine rebounds while Schmitz posted eight points, five assists and a pair of steals.

Morris was paced by 10 points and eight rebounds from Hansen, nine points from Layken Callahan, seven points and seven rebounds from Alyssa Jepson and six points and a game-high 14 rebounds from Landrie Callahan.

“I really thought we ran our offensive sets pretty well all game, but we missed a couple of bunnies and a couple more shots that we normally make in the first quarter to allow Ottawa to get out to a good lead,” Morris coach Nick Virgl said. “Their aggressive defense gave us some problems, but we also just were unable to make shots in keys spots throughout the game.

“I thought our overall defense was pretty good, but their No. 3 (Dorsey) is a very good shooter and if you leave her open for even a second, like you saw tonight, she going to make you pay.”

Both squads are now off until Jan. 3 with Ottawa playing at Oak Forest, while Morris hosts Kaneland.