The Paris girls wanted a fast start to districts but not too fast.
For the second time in three games, the Lady Coyotes defeated Sturgeon, winning 65-53 in the quarterfinals of the Class 2 …
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The Paris girls wanted a fast start to districts but not too fast.
For the second time in three games, the Lady Coyotes defeated Sturgeon, winning 65-53 in the quarterfinals of the Class 2 District 5 tournament on Monday at Van-Far. Paris (21-6) outscored Sturgeon 24-6 in the second quarter, which began with a 16-0 by the Lady Coyotes.
Head coach Garrett Thomas said he thought the game was running at the pace that Paris wanted after the first quarter. Paris had a 12-11 lead after the first quarter.
“We played our tempo,” Thomas said. “I thought we rushed things in the first quarter. When you’re rushing, you’re not making your shots and you can leave teams in it. We were playing too fast to be effective.”
Thomas explained Paris shooting too fast makes it harder for the team to rebound and the rebounding improved when the Lady Coyotes were at the proper tempo.
Melanie Moore brings much speed to the point guard position for Paris and she led the floor with 25 points, seven rebounds and seven steals. Moore said the team was confident after beating Sturgeon (6-20) recently and have further confidence that they can rely on Thomas.
“He gives us advice whenever we’re in our heads or going too fast,” Moore said.
Reese Sutton finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, and Hailey Morgan had nine points.
Moore was affecting the game everywhere as she did not stop scoring or giving Paris extra possessions.
“She affects the game in a lot of different ways,” Thomas said. “She set all of our steals records already as a junior. She had 10 earlier this year and had another game with nine.”
Moore said darting around and pressuring the defense by pushing the ball in transition comes natural to her. It has always been her style, and she has found that it helps the team.
“Going fast in one tempo gets me to the basket and it gets me to lead passes to other people,” Moore said.
Allie Heath tied Moore with 25 points and caught fire in the fourth quarter by scoring 14 points and hitting four of her five 3-pointers. Brooke Smith was Sturgeon’s next leading scorer with 10 points.
Thomas said the first group for Paris guarded well, but there were defensive lapses with the next younger group. Before facing Louisiana (17-9), who Paris defeated 48-37 in early December, at 7:30 p.m. tonight, he said the team needs to find more depth.
“Our second group has to play better defensively,” Thomas said. “We’re going to need them to add depth to give our girls a break. At times, we played the way Sturgeon wanted us to play to let them back in the game. We’ve got to play smarter with our second group, and we’ve got to get off to a better start.”
Moore said she knows Paris can play better than it did on Monday.
“This gives us motivation for the next game,” Moore said. “We can definitely play better than that all four quarters. We can be that fast, and we can make those good decisions.”
