After going 2-1 in their first summer shootout, the Paris girls basketball team won two of three varsity scrimmages on Thursday at Westran.

Paris at Westran Shootout Photo Gallery

The Lady Coyotes played in another shootout hosted by Westran at Moberly Area Community College and beat Marceline and Fayette and lost to Tipton. At Westran High School, they defeated Marceline in a close game and Mexico by a wide margin and lost to Cairo by a handful of points in varsity action, while the junior varsity team played against Westran and Glasgow.

Head coach Garrett Thomas said Paris treats the scrimmages like an extension of practice. He said the team wants to focus gaining experience on a varsity court. 

“We’re not trying to win at all costs,” Thomas said. “I’m trying to put girls into situations they might be in during varsity seasons. We don’t run a lot of our sets or plays. It’s more we’re trying to flow and just get used to playing and how we play.”

Thomas said he mainly likes seeing girls play hard and aggressive and believes he is seeing that across the roster. Paris graduated only two players, but despite that, he said the team could see a bigger rotation during the winter, going from eight kids last year to perhaps 10-11 this year.

“Some of our freshmen from last year are ready to be in varsity roles,” Thomas said. “We’ve got a couple freshmen incoming that I could see fitting into certain spots.”

Paris is coming off its first 20-win season since 2019 and first district championship game appearance since 2020. Two of its all-conference and all-district players, Melanie Moore and Reese Sutton, return from a year ago while Thomas was named the Lewis and Clark Conference coach of the year.

The Lady Coyotes have others returning like Sophia and Gretchen Crusha, Emma Ashenfelter and Ava Crain. Thomas said those girls can shoot and were effective from the perimeter on Thursday at Westran, and he’s also noticed some girls who can address other areas. 

“All of them collectively are doing different things better,” Thomas said. “I’ve got a couple post players — Layla Riechmann and Raygen Crum — who are doing a good job of fitting into that main post player role. We’re not very big so they’re getting used to varsity level speed and physicality.”

Thomas said Paris played a shootout Friday and Saturday in Rolla and plans to play June 16 at Monroe City and host a shootout June 19-20. 

“They’re all just getting used to the way that we play,” Thomas said.