Scooping up two wins in as many days, the Cherryvale Chargers girls beat the Parsons Vikings at home on Monday, 55-45, before taking down Fredonia in Tri-Valley League play on Tuesday, 56-24.
Parsons followed up its loss to Cherryvale with a narrow defeat at home to Coffeyville in overtime, 54-53.
On Monday, Cherryvale’s press wore Parsons down as the Chargers pulled away in the second half.
“We were a little sloppy,” Cherryvale head coach Kelsey Overacker said. “But our kids play hard all the time. They came out and played a better second half. We weren’t as aggressive defensively. At the end of the day, our kids fought hard and got a win.”
Harmony John led Cherryvale with 17 points.
“Harmony is our person,” Overacker said. “We use her inside-out. She has the ball in her hands a lot. She’s someone we’ll always trust.”
Braelyn Hinman-Mitchell led Parsons with 11 points. Ayanna Robertson was limited to 10 points.
“We definitely had an off night,” Parsons head coach Erik Lyons said. “We were still in there at times. We didn’t get out there on their shooters. We wanted them to put the ball on the floor and make another play. But they moved the ball around and they knocked down shots. Cherryvale stayed in the fight a little bit longer than we did. I’ve got to figure out a way to keep the game close.”
Overacker credited her squad’s best defender for limiting the lanky Robertson.
“That scheme is Kynlee Greif,” Overacker said. “She’s silently one of our best players. She’s always on the boards. She’s always guarding the other team’s best player. We have so much confidence in her. She did a great job of taking (Robertson) away.”
Lyons also cited Cherryvale’s intensity on defense.
“I put on the scouting report that they play handsy and like to pressure,” Lyons said. “It bothered us at times. Sometimes we got easy looks. But we didn’t do that enough. A oneor- two possession game turned into a three-or-four possession game.”
On Tuesday, John led Cherryvale with 15 points against Fredonia while Greif added 13.
“We put ourselves where we want to be,” Overacker said. “We are playing really good pressure defense in the full and half court. That’s really springing our scorers.”
Up next
Cherryvale hosted Eureka on Thursday while Parsons plays at Independence on Friday.
