It was raining outside and raining inside on Saturday.

Gary Filbert Classic Photo Gallery

The North Callaway girls stepped onto Gary Filbert Court in the morning for the opening game of the 13th annual Gary Filbert Classic against Paris. There was a drizzle outside and eventually was raining inside when the Ladybirds hit 13 3-pointers to defeat Paris 59-45.

Natalie Shryock nailed about half of those 3-pointers with her six from deep as part of her 24 points. That was more than enough to earn her the day’s first MVP award, but Riley Blevins added three 3-pointers to her 11 points, six assists and four steals, Faith Cash hit two as part of her eight points, and Abrielle Burgher had one to start her 11-point game.

“We’ve been preaching confidence all year long,” North Callaway head coach Andrew Klein said. “We’ve got some really good shooters on our team, and some don’t get praised enough like Faith Cash, who is our sixth man. We’re very unselfish — sometimes too much where I want the other girl to shoot it.” 

Klein said North Callaway (6-2) needs to have faith in its shooting to beat teams like Paris (3-6), who had only given up 50 points one other time this season in a 57-34 loss to Monroe City. He said finding ways to supply shooters the ball is what the Ladybirds address in the practice and is happy to see it pay off during a game like in the Classic.

Shryock was hot early from the field with three 3-pointers in the first half, including one in the first quarter to give North Callaway its first lead at 12-11 it wouldn’t relinquish again. Lakyn Hartley hit one 3-pointer of four in the first quarter and then Blevins and Cash helped Shryock out with a 3-pointer each in the second quarter for a 36-24 halftime lead.

“Girls like Riley Blevins, Abrielle Burgher and Lakyn Hartley with their ability to also be threats to score open up a lot for Nat,” Klein said. “It’s really hard to contain one person, and so you have to pick your poison. They saw other girls can get stuff done and left Nat too open. Nat’s going to make you pay.”

Paris head coach Garrett Thomas said the Lady Coyotes had just lost to Lewis and Clark Conference foe Schuyler County 44-23 at home the previous night. Asking his girls to play man-to-man defense is a tough task not even a day following the previous game.

“Ideally, we play man-to-man defense against them,” Thomas said. “We were on tired legs so I didn’t feel like we could stay with them man-to-man the entire game. Had we had fresh legs, we probably would have gone man-to-man and tried to cut down on the 3-point shots.”

Thomas said there was a difference in the Lady Coyotes’ defense as the game wore on because the biggest 21-point lead turned into a nine-point lead momentarily in the fourth quarter. Emma Ashenfelter had three steals to create some turnovers.

Offensively, Ashenfelter scored all seven of her points in the second half, including a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter. Maura Crusha hit her second 3-pointer of the game in the fourth as well.

“We started doing a better job of closing out to their shooters,” Thomas said. “Making them drivers instead of shooters was one of the main objectives. Sometimes, you have to choose to let her shoot or let her drive and we did a better job of forcing them to go to the basket.”

Thomas said Saturday was a better offensive effort than the previous night when the Lady Coyotes “couldn’t throw it in the ocean.” Reese Sutton was Paris’ best offensive player after being shut out in the first quarter. Sutton finished with 19 points and five rebounds, stepping out to hit three 3-pointers.

“Reese is pretty versatile and tends to want to be outside more than inside,” Thomas said. “I like her inside more than outside usually, but it’s nice she can do a little of both. It makes it hard to guard if you can shoot well and also post up.”

Klein and the Ladybirds thought they didn’t have a good defensive game with too many uncontested layups and too many fouls. They applied more pressure after their fourth first-quarter gave them the lead, but Klein said they will work through that side of the ball.

“We went to a zone there for a little bit and got several steals out of it,” Klein said. “We’re experimenting with mix and match and different defenses.”

Look for the story in the Saturday, Dec. 23, 2023, edition of the Mexico Ledger.