GREENVILLE – Versailles won the Annie Oakley Shootout on Saturday night by defeating host Greenville 58-28 in the championship game.
The Versailles girls basketball team advanced to the championship by defeating Graham 70-28 Friday night while Greenville beat Eaton 57-40 in the other semifinal game on Friday. In the final on Saturday it was all Versailles as the Lady Tigers led throughout the entire game.
“I thought they came out really, really, really well tonight,” Versailles coach Jacki Stonebraker said of her team’s play against Greenville. “We had to change our starting lineup since Danielle (Winner) was out, but I felt like we didn’t skip a beat. We did a really nice job finishing and controlling the game.”
Versailles got off to a quick start and scored the game’s first five points. Greenville pulled to within 7-4, but Versailles then went on a 20-0 run to finish the quarter up 27-4.
Six Versailles girls scored in the first eight minutes of the game, led by Kami McEldowney who had 10 of her game-high 12 points in the opening quarter.
“Ultimately that first quarter that was the biggest difference,” Greenville coach Rachel Kerns said. “They got after it a little bit defensively, but we did a great job breaking their press. We just missed too many easy ones.”
After the big first quarter Versailles’ offense slowed down as the Tigers only managed six points in the second quarter. That was enough, however, to outscore Greenville in the period as the Lady Wave only managed three free throws, making the score 33-7 at halftime.
Versailles’ offense got back on track in the third quarter as the Tigers outscored the Wave 17-12 in the period to increase their advantage to 50-19.
Greenville outscored Versailles 9-8 in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers still won by 30 points, 58-28.
“It was a very evenly matched game the last three quarters, and that’s the part that we have to go off of moving forward for our program,” Kerns said.
McEldowney led Versailles with her game-high 12 points. Also for the Lady Tigers, Clair Schmitmeyer scored 11 points, Mallory Marshal scored 10, Camille Watren scored eight, Elizabeth Ording scored six, Ellen Peters scored six, Kami Ording scored three, and Bailey Huffman scored two.
Cassie Cromwell led Greenville with 11 points on Saturday. Also for the Lady Wave, Karsyn Shaffer scored nine points, Saki Nakamura scored four, Payton Brandenburg scored two, and Lani Shilt scored two.
“Overall it was a good weekend; 1-1 is ultimately what our goal was, and we met that goal,” Kerns said. “Versailles is a really good basketball team. They’re going to go win a lot of games this year. She has a great program. By the time kids get to go up and play for her they know the ins and outs of the game and they know how to play the game.”
Greenville is now 1-1 on the season and will play host to Northmont on Wednesday in its next game.
“If you look at our next stretch in our schedule there’s some very winnable games,” Kerns said. “We need to get back, get focused and work on the little things such as finishing at the basket, but our next two weeks of basketball could be a lot of fun.”
Versailles is now 2-0 on the year and will play at Midwest Athletic Conference rival Coldwater on Thursday.
“They’re excited for the win, they’re excited to be 2-0 and hopefully just to propel us into this MAC season,” Stonebraker said.
In the consolation game of the Annie Oakley Shootout Eaton beat Graham 48-33.
