The North Callaway girls weren’t sure how well their shooting would be on Thursday afternoon.

North Callaway at Sturgeon Photo Gallery

In their first game after Christmas break, the Ladybirds’ worries were smoothed over as they finished with 11 3-pointers and outrebounded Sturgeon 35-22 to win 51-30 on the road. Natalie Shryock nailed a career-high seven 3-pointers for a game-high 21 points and helped North Callaway (7-4) gain a 25-11 halftime lead after a 6-5 advantage after the first quarter.

The shooting start for both teams were poor as defense dominated early, but North Callaway started raining down 3-pointers for a 12-1 run and an 18-8 lead in the second quarter. Head coach Andrew Klein said he wasn’t sure how well the Ladybirds would shoot despite them excelling usually in that category as their floor started to undergo some work before Christmas. 

“I was nervous we weren’t going to shoot very well,” Klein said. “Our floor got redone so we’ve only had one practice over the last week, and we practiced at Fulton High School. Getting back in the flow of a varsity level speed of a game is tough sometimes and getting up and down the floor.”

Klein said North Callaway won’t be able to practice on its new gift until next week since the floor needs time to dry. The Ladybirds needed some time to heat up from the floor and did so with five 3-pointers in the second quarter while limiting Sturgeon (5-5) to two rebounds.

Lakyn Hartley led the team with eight rebounds, Faith Cash had five rebounds (four offensive) off the bench and Riley Blevins had four boards. Hartley and Blevins each had the team-high of four assists, both being major contributors to the 14 assists dished out by the Ladybirds.

“When your shots aren’t going in, you’ve got to win the rebounding battle and the turnover battle,” Klein said. “We did that and were unselfish with the ball. We made a lot of one-more passes and extra passes for shooters. When we can do that and play unselfishly, we’re really hard to guard.”

Hartley snagged seven of her rebounds in the first half as North Callaway built a 14-point lead at halftime and then gradually added on until 22 points was the biggest margin of the game. Despite the combined 11 points in the first quarter, Hartley liked how the Ladybirds started offensively and tried to be a factor on that side of the floor. She and Blevins each finished with six points and nine Ladybirds ended up scoring.

“We started the game better than we have the past couple games,” Hartley said. “Sometimes, we don’t come out very aggressive, and I thought we came pretty aggressive in scoring and shooting the ball well. This game, I was trying to score a little more. I always try to rebound more.”

Klein said another Ladybird “played bigger” and was key in North Callaway’s awakening in the first half. The sixth-man Cash made the most of her minutes, scoring five points and hitting one of North Callaway’s 3-pointers in the second quarter.

“Faith Cash is a good player and just has a lot of guards ahead of her that are good players too,” Klein said. “We went with an all-guard lineup there, and she played a lot bigger than what she is. She saved a ball out of bounds, blocked a ball, got a rebound, came down and hit a three, and got a steal all in a matter of probably a minute. It was a good spark, and the girls feed off of that.”

Because of Cash and other players like her, Klein said North Callaway gains confidence and becomes more difficult to stop. Sturgeon called multiple timeouts to halt the pressure the Ladybirds were applying, but the ground to make up kept growing.

The Ladybirds had a much faster start in the second half than the first one as Shryock nailed three 3-pointers before Sturgeon had a chance to score a point, building up to the first 20-point lead of the day. 

“A lot of them came on inside-out looks, which we want to be able to score at the rim,” Klein said. “With a guard-heavy team, it’s hard to do that, but we’re getting better at it. When we score at the rim, it makes us tougher to defend on the perimeter.”

Other than Shryock’s seven 3-pointers, which she has made once before in a game against Clopton last season, Blevins had a couple of 3-pointers and Abrielle Burgher and Cash each hit a 3-pointer. Hartley said there are several good places to go with the ball.

“It makes it easier to run the offense when we have multiple scoring threats,” Hartley said.

The Lady Bulldogs didn’t have a steady way of scoring for most of the game and ran into more double teams in the second half. Rylee West had a bit of a hot streak in the fourth quarter by scoring 11 of her 14 points and hitting three 3-pointers in the final eight minutes.

Klein said Sturgeon picked up a few more offensive rebounds in the second half but was happy overall how North Callaway played in its first game after a break, especially after losing 46-44 in the final moments to Hallsville in the previous game.

“We still need to tidy it up,” Klein said. “We would go through stretches where we’d give up too many offensive rebounds, but it’s something that we’re trying to pride ourselves in to get better at.”

North Callaway plays at district foe South Callaway (3-7) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.