The Paris girls are off to their best start in six years.

Van-Far vs Paris Photo Gallery

The Lady Coyotes are 4-0 after a 49-22 home victory Tuesday over Van-Far, holding the Lady Indians (1-3) scoreless in the fourth quarter and to just 10 points in the second half. The previous 4-0 start for the Paris girls program was part of a 15-0 winning streak to begin the 2018-19 season.

Paris head coach Garrett Thomas said the Lady Coyotes definitely had their sights on Chloe Zumwalt and Elliott Utterback for Van-Far. Zumwalt and Utterback led the Lady Indians in scoring with 11 points and nine points, respectively, but didn’t do any more damage than that.

“They’ve got two really solid girls,” Thomas said. “The girls did a really good job of executing a game plan. We knew, in the post, we needed to make sure to double team because (Zumwalt) was going to catch. We had to play team defense when (Utterback) was looking to get to the basket.”

Thomas said he and the girls had seen film of Van-Far so were aware of how well Zumwalt finishes at the rim. She towers over the smaller Paris team but had two and sometimes three surround her whenever she touched the ball. 

Zumwalt added six rebounds and Utterback had three rebounds, but Van-Far’s 19 rebounds fell short of the 31 boards pulled down by Paris. Alyssa Webb and Reese Sutton each had seven rebounds and Melanie Moore added five rebounds to her eight points. Webb was the Lady Coyotes’ leading scorer with 13 points to go with two blocks, Sutton was behind her with 12 points and three steals, and Gretchen Crusha hit three 3-pointers off the bench.

“Alyssa and Reese both did a really good job of guarding (Zumwalt) tonight,” Thomas said. “Alyssa is a really solid post defender, and tonight, it was really key in our matchups. Alyssa does a really good job of making post players catch off the block.”

Van-Far head coach Heather Minter said the Lady Indians knew Tuesday would be a tough game after earning the team’s first victory the previous night 54-37 at Sturgeon. Minter said Van-Far did well after worrying about Sturgeon’s press defense but thought the Lady Indians played more “scared” this time.

Zumwalt and Utterback had huge games against Sturgeon with 24 points and 21 points, respectively. Minter said Paris was more aggressive this night.

“That’s us at our worst,” Minter said. “Paris came out and was aggressive and our kids just folded. They didn’t respond like we wanted them to respond. We battled at times, like one time we cut it within six, but then we just went back in the shell.”

Minter was referring to the first quarter when Van-Far cut its deficit to 13-7. However, the Lady Indians couldn’t get much offense going and balance it out, having Mylee Keller account for the only bucket not by Zumwalt and Utterback. Minter said Paris did well shutting Utterback down, and Van-Far couldn’t even generate offense from out of bounds.

“We’re young, and we’re still trying to find leadership,” Minter said. “Instead of somebody stepping up, we keep piling, piling and piling like a snowball.”

Van-Far has all underclassmen on its roster except one girls, but Paris has some upperclassmen now after some seasons of struggle. Webb and Sutton are two of those upperclassmen that Thomas said are better after experience.

“We’re older and wiser,” Thomas said while explaining his team’s undefeated start. “These are the same girls that have been starting and playing for the last three years. Unfortunately, several years ago, we had very few upperclassmen and we slowly got to that point where I’m playing juniors and seniors. These girls are experienced and know how to play.”

Paris hosts Monroe City (2-0) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday while Van-Far plays at Christian Fellowship (1-0) at 7:30 p.m. Monday.