Girls prep basketball: Lee's Summit North 67, Smith-Cotton 28

What used to be a safe-haven for the Lady Tigers, Smith-Cotton gym has been anything but accommodating of late.

After starting off 3-0 in the southwestern Sedalia venue, the Lady Tigers have dropped three of their past four at home and five of six overall, including Monday night’s 67-28 running-clock loss to Lee’s Summit North.

The skid comes amid a six-game homestand for the Lady Tigers, who started it off with a 1-2, third-place showing in last week’s four-team Smith-Cotton Classic.

“They’re just a better team than we are,” said S-C head coach Chris Parsons, who returned to the bench after missing four games with an disclosed injury. “I hoped we would come out and compete a bit better but we just didn’t.”

At the core of the loss was the Lady Tigers’ defense, which allowed a season-high in points.

Unable to shore up the interior defense, the Lady Tigers watched as Broncos (10-3) secured 24 offensive rebounds and had four players score in double figures.

Imani Johnson and Jaden Powell, who both pulled down 13 rebounds, led the team’s 50-percent shooting effort with 14 points each, McKenzie Kellogg added 11 (all in the first quarter), and Erica Nelson chipped in 10 for the Broncos.

“I told them at halftime, ‘If we don’t block out it’s going to be a long night.’ ” Parsons said. “We didn’t block out and I bet we gave up 14, 15 or 16 offensive rebounds in the first half alone. When you give a good offensive team like that second chances, and they didn’t need a lot of second chances, they’re going to capitalize.”

Second opportunities were few and far between for Smith-Cotton’s offense, which committed 13 turnovers and was held to 21-percent shooting from the floor and a 27-percent clip from beyond the arc.

The lone bright spot for the Lady Tigers (10-8) was the play of senior Lexi Hope, who scored in double figures for the ninth consecutive game. The 5-foot-6 point guard hit three 3-pointers and was the lone Lady Tiger in double figures with 15 points.

Hope shined early with a couple of 3-pointers in the first quarter, but Kellogg  poured in 11, and the Lady Broncos shot 6 of 12 from the field to take a 16-8 lead  into the second.

From there, it was all Lee’s Summit North.  Powell scored seven points and Johnson added five in the second frame, as the Broncos took a 37-17 lead into halftime.

The Lady Tigers managed little resistance down the stretch, shooting 9 for 43 in the final 16 minutes and falling behind by as many as 41 as the running clock took effect.

For Parsons, the key to turning around the slump is keeping focus. With the Lady Tigers gearing up for a run at its second straight league title, the fifth-year Smith-Cotton head coach believes his team may be looking ahead to conference play. But he cautions that his team can’t afford to look past home matchups with Versailles tonight and Helias Thursday night.

“I’m trying to not have our guys so focused on those conference games down the road,” Parsons said, “but we know those are coming up over the last couple of weeks. Right now, though, we have seven big ballgames. We need to step up from here.”