Undefeated no more

MURRAY – Two undefeated Bluegrass Conference foes faced off Tuesday with No. 14 Class 1A Seymour toppling Murray 53-42 thanks to plenty of defensive help.

The Warriorettes' interior defense was too much for the Lady Mustangs as Seymour blocked numerous Murray shots inside the paint.

Seymour turned those blocks into opportunities on the other end, pushing the ball up the floor when presented with the chance.

"That was one of the things we talked about in practice last night," said Murray head coach Jerry Shields. "They block a lot of shots, we've got to be able to use fakes in there and we did not do a very good job of that tonight."

Murray never trailed by more than 14 points and kept itself seemingly in contention the entire way by closing both halves with small runs to cut the deficit.

Aggressive defense from the Warriorettes kept the Lady Mustangs on their toes as Murray had numerous turnovers on errant passes.

Murray had stretches where it was able to work the ball inside, the Lady Mustangs started the game up 7-2 after a putback basket by Ally Waske. Waske scored the first two buckets of the second half with post-up moves, but was held silent the rest of the night, finishing with just eight points and seven rebounds.

Seymour ended the first quarter on an 12-1 run and refused to surrender the lead the rest of the contest.

Riley Jewett and Katie George used their athleticism to get around the Lady Mustang defense for large portions of the game.

Jewett scored 17 points (7 of 11 from the free throw line) and dished out multiple assists to George and others, outside or inside the paint

George found a rhythm knocking down deep 2's and scored 16 points over the course of the game.

"We always have one or two that step up," said Seymour head coach Paul Hinners. "We don’t have a set leading scorer, usually we have three or four of them so there are always going to be one or two of them that rise to the occasion."

Kayla Wookey was one Lady Mustangs to find occasional success inside. Multiple buckets for the junior came on drives to the hoop. She also converted on her fair share of fastbreak opportunities following steals or turnovers. Wookey finished with a team-high 16 points for the Lady Mustangs.

Hinners admitted part of the adjustments he made were to keep Wookey out of the paint.

"My gameplan was to keep from driving, but the Wookey girl, she had a couple of really nice drives," said Hinners. "I think it helped when I brought my other post in to match up a little better."

Hailey Chew hit the two lone 3-pointers for Murray, one in each half. Chew's first shot from beyond the arc found the bottom of the twine seconds before halftime, cutting Seymour's lead to just seven. Chew ended the night with 10 points.

The Lady Mustangs defense shouldn't be shy of praise either. Seymour came into Tuesday's contest averaging 64.3 points per game, a mark Murray held the Warriorettes 10 points away from reaching.

Zadie Hatfield snagged five steals, attacking Seymour's guards at the half court line as well as on the perimeter. Murray as a team swiped 11 steals. The Lady Mustangs also blocked eight shots as a unit.

Shields noted there were a lot of positives to take away from the loss, including the fact that Murray hung in the game down the stretch despite multiple players playing with flu-like symptoms.

Even with the exhaustion showing late, Murray closed the gap from 14 points to nine in the final minutes.

"That’s important for later on down the road," Shields said. "When we walked through the line tonight he said, ‘We will probably see you in the (Bluegrass) finals’ and I am hoping that's the case."

"Had a couple kids that weren’t a 100 percent, had one kid that wasn’t even here. So that’s something positive that we are going to be able to build on if we do meet them in the finals."

The Lady Mustangs defeated Iowa Christian Academy 58-17 on Friday and Mount Ayr in a huge win 56-52 on Monday.

Bre Klein led Murray with 20 points and eight rebounds in the Mount Ayr win and Zadie Hatfield scored 17 with five rebounds and five steals to improve to 12-1.

Murray 46, Lamoni 18

The Murray Lady Mustangs put the clamps on Lamoni Friday, winning 46-18.

Murray held Lamoni without a single point in the first quarter on its way to a 21-2 lead at the halftime intermission. Ally Waske scored a team-high 14 points for the Lady Mustangs along with eight rebounds and a block.

Bre Klein was the other Murray player to finish in double-digits, putting home 11 points with six rebounds, four steals and two assists.

Zadie Hatfield swiped seven of Murray's 17 team steals.

Running score by quarter

Sey – 13 28 40 53

Mur – 8 21 29 42

Sey (FG FT PTS) – Totals – 21 10-19 53. Riley Jewett 5 7-11 17, Katie George 7 1-2 16, Acey Jellison 4 1-2 9, Hannah Hinners 4 0-2 8, Payton Jellison 1 1-2 3. 3-point goals – 1 (George 1). Team fouls – 14. Fouled out – None.

Mur (FG FT PTS) – Totals – 14 10-19 42. Kayla Wookey 5 6-11 16, Hailey Chew 3 2-3 10, Ally Waske 4 0-1 8, Bre Klein 0 2-4 2, Rylee Newton 1 0-0 2, Zadie Hatfield 1 0-0 2, Kendra Boles 1 0-0 2. 3-point goals – 2 (Chew 2). Rebounds – 27 (Waske 7, Wookey 6, Hatfield 5, Chew 3, Kendra Boles 3, Newton 1, Klein 1, Megan Johnston 1). Assists – 6 (Wookey 4, Klein 2). Steals – 11 (Hatfield 5, Wookey 2, Boles 1, Chew 1, Klein 1, Waske 1). Blocks – 8 (Waske 3, Klein 2, Chew 2, Hatfield 1). Team fouls – 15. Fouled out – Hatfield.

Murray boys lock down Seymour

MURRAY — At no point was Murray interested in letting visiting Seymour stick in Tuesday’s Bluegrass contest.

Murray harassed the Warriors into repeated turnovers, as the Mustangs lived at the rim thanks to picture-perfect passing and ball movement in transition.

The young Mustangs’ decision-making was on full display on their way to a gaudy 47-13 halftime lead and a 73-33 victory that improved them to 7-3 overall and 5-3 in Bluegrass Conference play.

Coming into the contest, Murray had only averaged 54.3 points per game, a total it nearly matched by halftime.

Even Murray coach Darin Wookey is pleasantly surprised with how well his inexperienced team has played through the first half of its schedule.

“Coach (Adam) Broast actually said before the game, ‘can you believe we’re 6-3 at this point and even with a possibility of being 7-3 after tonight,’ I looked at him and said I ‘no.’ We actually went down and discussed that with the boys," Wookey said. "We said ‘guys, we didn’t expect to be 6-3, we’re having a lot of fun here.”

Devin Slaughter keyed an early run with a thunderous block that prompted a transition layup for Reece Held, one of several that Held had in the first half on his way to 10 points in the first 16 minutes of play.

Slaughter followed that seconds later when he pulled up and knocked down an open trey for an 11-5 lead.

“Devin plays really good D," Wookey said. "We let him play that 1-3-1 on the baseline and he had to work his tail off going from baseline to baseline.”

The Mustangs flustered the Warriors with a 1-3-1 zone defense in the half court that left the Warriors huffing, puffing and without a coordinated offensive attack.

Murray’s bigs got in on the action, as Levi Snyder and Jeran Cosner traded buckets on alternating possessions before Snyder found Cosner on a block-to-block pass for another easy layup.

Murray capped a 15-0 run during that sequence to go up 26-5.

“Those guys, Levi Snyder and Rilee Werner and Jeran Cosner are doing a very good job for us anyway for being a little undersized," Wookey noted about the trio that combined for 21 points, most of which came in the first half.

Not that Murray was satisfied.

Cosner and Keegan Johnson anchored a 10-0 run, that was interrupted by a Lucas Mitchell bucket, only for Murray to score the next 11 points for an overwhelming 47-9 lead.

Slaughter's nine points first-half points was topped only by Reece Held, who scored 10, all of which came in the first half.

Sharing the basketball paid dividends for the Mustang bunch that has showed increasing maturity over the last three games, all victories to start the new year.

“That was something that we’ve been working on a lot is being unselfish with the basketball and I thought we made a lot of great plays with the ball tonight," Wookey said.

Murray allowed a few buckets from Prestyn Lawson, who hit four 3-pointers in the second half, but coasted to the easy conference win.

Payton Flaherty knocked down two 3-pointers in each half to reach a team-high total of 14.

Murray defeated ICA 58-34 on Friday and lost to Mount Ayr Monday 44-31.

Running score by quarter

Sey (33) – 5 13 26 33

Mur (73) – 26 47 64 73

Sey (FG FT PTS) – Totals 14 0-3 33. Prestyn Lawson 5 0-0 14, Hunter Parham 3 0-0 6, Lucas Mitchell 2 0-1 4, Ty Campebll 1 0-0 3, Zach White 1 0-0 2, Jaxxson Jellison 1 0-0 2, Sloan Sulser 1 0-2 2. 3-point goals – 5 (Lawson 4, Campbell 1). Team fouls – 7. Fouled out – none.

Mur (FG FT PTS) – Totals 31 4-5 73. Payton Flaherty 5 0-0 14, Reece Held 5 0-0 10, Devin Slaughter 4 0-0 9, Keegan Johnson 3 2-2 9, Levi Snyder 4 1-2 9, Jeran Cosner 4 0-0 8 Jimmy Graham 2 0-0 5, Jace Rilee Werner 2 0-0 4, Chase Werner 1 1-1 3. Jace Rodecker 1 0-0 2. 3-point goals – 7 (Flaherty 4, Slaughter 1, Johnson 1, Graham 1). Team fouls – 6. Fouled out – None.