Owensboro had a blowout 65-15 win over Apollo to move them to 2-0 in the district early in the season. Shalyn Sprinkles led the Lady Red Devils with 20 points and 4 key three pointers to help provide an early lead.
The Lady Red Devils set the tempo early with a full-court press and tight defense. Their high-pressure defense led to a steal that set up Heleina John with an open three-pointer for the first bucket of the game. OHS continued the high intensity, and it caused multiple steals and turnovers to give Owensboro some easy buckets to grow an early lead. They ended the first quarter with a 25-4 lead.
Owensboro head coach Jansen Locher said this high-tempo start was the plan coming into the game.
“We knew we could set the pace,” he said. “We thought in our last district game, we didn’t do that. So, one of our goals was to come out fast and try to get an early lead. They’re in a rebuild right now, but their post players are where the strength is, so our goal was to not let the post players get the ball down low. I think the early buckets were huge, and that let us get out into transition.
During the first quarter, Sprinkles recorded 4 three-pointers to help Owensboro grow an early lead. She would go on to lead the team in scoring with 20 points. The team is hard to beat when Sprinkles gets on a shooting streak, according to Locher.
To start the second quarter, Sprinkles stole the ball and took it to the basket for an easy bucket. Her defensive effort didn’t stop there, as Sprinkles had multiple steals in the quarter that led to an easy bucket for herself or a teammate.
The Lady Red Devils went into halftime with a 50-10 lead. Unique Carter-Swanagan pened the second half with a steal that led to a breakaway bucket. The rest of the second half saw OHS score 15 points to Apollo’s 5 for Owensboro to win 65-15.
Along with Sprinkles, the Lady Red Devils had two other players have double digits in scoring. Carter-Swanagan had 11 points on the night, and Keeley Harris had 10 points as well.
With this win Owensboro moved to 2-0 in the district. Locher said the team is focused on making things happen as every team in this district is fighting for the #1 seed.
“We’re 2-0 in district and that’s where we want to be,” he said. “It’s just a very tough district. It’s probably one of the closest districts in the state. Everybody’s playing for that 1 seed, and you got to take it a game at a time. Even in these games where you’re a heavy favorite, you’ve still got to concentrate and make things happen. We’ve been on the other end where we’ve been the underdog, and we’ve beat a district team, so we know that could happen any night. We know how tough Daviess County and Catholic are, so we’re happy to be where we’re at, and hopefully we continue playing well.”
