St. Marys, Belpre girls advance to SMHS Invite title game

Belpre's Haley Alloway powers through the double-team of Frontier's Alexis Livingston, left, and Elaney Cisler, right during Friday's game at the St. Marys High School Invitational Tournament. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
ST. MARYS – The St. Marys Blue Devils had no trouble at all disposing of Ritchie County in the night cap of Friday night’s 20th Annual St. Marys High School Invitational.
Addie Davis and Brynnley Bullock tossed in 19 points apiece to lead five St. Marys scorers in double figures as the Devils rolled to an 81-33 win over the Lady Rebels..
St. Marys scored 23 points in the opening quarter thanks in part to an outstanding first period by Bulluck.
The sophomore scored 11 points and yanked down six rebounds in the opening eight minutes alone as the Devils pulled out to a 23-10 lead.
“She (Bulluck) is a very talented sophomore and played very well in that opening quarter,” said St. Marys head coach Fred King. “We play a bunch of freshman and sophomores to go along with a couple of really good seniors and we are fortunate to have that kind of pipe-line here.”

Ritchie County's Elsa Law, left, guards St. Marys' Brynnley Bulluck during Friday's game at the St. Marys High School Tournament Invitational. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
While Bulluck did a lot of her damage under the basket, Davis was doing hers from behind the arc as she canned four 3-pointers in the game including one to open the second period.
Davis scored again on the next St. Marys possession off of a Bulluck assist and then Bulluck grabbed a rebound and put it back up and in to give the home team a 20-point lead.
That board gave Bulluck a double-double with five minutes still to play in the opening half.
The Devils increased their lead to 38-17 at the break thanks to a late triple by Laney Watkins.
Despite the big lead at the half King wasn’t totally impressed with his teams performance in the opening two quarters.
“I didn’t feel like we were moving the ball well at all in the first half and I told them that at halftime,” said King, whose team finished with 19 assists in the game. “We knew if we could move the basketball we could get some wide open shots and they did a much better job of that in the second half.”
The Devils looked much more like the number two ranked team in the state in the third quarter as they out-scored the Rebels 18-9 to stretch their lead to 30.
Bulluck finished the game with 15 boards, four assists and four blocked shots while Davis had four steals to go along with her 19.
Anna Bennett added 14 points while Callie Powell scored all 12 of her points in the second half.
Watkins added 10 for St. Marys who improved to 11-1 with the win.
Ritchie County (7-4) was led by Elsa Law with 12 points.
Belpre 43, Frontier 39
While the second game of the evening did not provide much drama the opener sure did as the Belpre Golden Eagles rallied to down the Frontier Cougars 43-39.
Belpre trailed by as many as 13 points in the opening half before rallying in the second half thanks to a pressure defense that gave the young Cougars fits down the stretch.
The Eagles couldn’t buy a bucket in the opening half as they shot just 7-of 29 from the floor including 0-for-13 from behind the arc
Complicating things for the Eagles was the fact that Frontier was making their shots as they hit on 10-of-15 attempts including a perfect three-for-three from long distance.
Keely Barrows hit a pair of early 3’s for Frontier while Anna Bowersock knocked one down in the second quarter.
Late in the second quarter Elaney Cisler’s two-pointer gave her team a 23-10 lead only to watch Belpre score the final six points of the half to cut the lead to seven at the break.
Two of the late Belpre buckets came from Haley Alloway including an offensive rebound and put-back in the closing minute.
The Eagles trimmed the lead to five early in the third quarter but an old-fashioned three by Willow Smitley pushed the Cougar lead back to eight.
Belpre again managed to whittle down the lead before a late three-pointer by Shy Miller sent them to the final quarter trailing by two.
Miller’s three-ball was a big one as the Eagles had missed their first 16 shots from long range.
“Shy (Miller) had a big three for us Monday night at Warren and it was kind of the same thing again tonight,” said first-year Belpre head coach Austin Cunningham. “We were kind of jumping the gun and maybe shooting a few too many three’s instead of working the ball inside but that was a big one.”
Bowersock’s two-pointer opened the final quarter for the Cougars but a pair of free throws by Alloway and a two-pointer by Haley Bills tied the score for the first time in the game.
The two would swap the lead a couple of times midway through the quarter before the Eagles took the lead for good on a steal and finish by Julia Way.
Way added a two-pointer on the next Belpre possession to extend the lead to four but Smitley drove strong to the basket for two to cut the lead to two once again with just two minutes to play.
Larissa McDaniel made a free throw but missed her second but Bills came away with a huge offensive rebound to keep the ball in the hands of the Eagles.
Alloway made five-of-six free throws in the game including one in the closing seconds that made it a two-possession game and the Eagles held on for their 10th victory of the season against five losses.
“We kept with our press and that really seemed to bother them and we just kept grinding it out,” said Cunningham. “Frontier came out and they didn’t miss a lot of shots in the first half and built a pretty good lead but I am proud of the way we came back and came away with a great win.”
The Eagles were led by Bills with 12 points and Alloway with 11 while Way added eight all coming in the second half.
Kelsey Dye led the way for Frontier with 10 points while Bowersock and Smitley added 9 and 7 points respectively.
The loss was just the third of the season for the Mike Cisler coached Cougars.
Belpre will battle St. Marys Saturday evening in the Invitational championship game (7:30) while Frontier will play Ritchie County in the consolation game at 3:30.