Lady Bulldogs Knock Off St. James

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Trying to defeat St. James for your first Four Rivers Conference win normally isn’t the best way to approach things for fellow league foes.

But it worked out well for St. Clair on its home floor Thursday night.

The Lady Bulldogs (12-10, 1-3) picked up its first conference win of the season, knocking off traditional FRC power St. James, 41-34.

“I was really pleased with the way the girls played. It was the best team ball I have seen us play,” said St. Clair Head Coach Jena Carroll. “We had a specific plan going into the game and the girls executed it well.”

St. Clair held the lead over St. James throughout the low-scoring affair.

The Lady Bulldogs led 8-6 after one quarter, 20-13 at halftime and 29-24 after three quarters.

Brittany Sellers led St. Clair in the scoring column with 12 points, hitting three three-pointers. Ashley Fuchs finished the game with 10 points.

“Brittany’s three three-pointers were huge,” Carroll said. “Ashley did a great job of finding ways to score. She gave us a big offensive push when we needed it.”

Sarah Baker added six points on a pair of three-pointers. Sam Deason and Allison Hinson both added four points. Kayla Klenke scored three points. Karissa Hoffman had two points.

“Sarah hit big three-pointers in the first and fourth quarters,” Carroll said. “Allison had an excellent rebounding game. She had several offensive rebounds and played with confidence. Kayla did most of her good work on the defensive end. She worked really hard to not allow them to score. Karissa rebounded really well and worked extremely hard on defense. Sam played really good help defense inside.”

Tiffany Sellers and Shannon Duncan also played.

“Tiffany and Shannon both came in and played well on defense,” Carroll said.

St. James (11-6, 2-2) was led by Ashlee Marlatt, who scored 10 points. Brittany Harris-Conway added eight points.

The Lady Tigers currently are without one of their top players in junior guard M.J. Buschmann, who is injured.

“Our intensity was great all the way around,” Carroll said. “Our inside players worked so hard on defense. It was a good exchange for our guards to do a lot of the work on offense.”