Youthful Oran girls basketball team falls short against Naylor in Class 1 sectional

BLOOMFIELD, Mo. -- The Oran girls basketball team has had a tremendous season, but it looked in over its head in a Class 1 sectional Tuesday night at Bloomfield High School.

Naylor jumped out to a 10-2 lead early on, and outscored Oran 19-7 in the first quarter and 15-5 in the third to control the contest from start to finish in a 61-42 victory.

For Oran (23-4) it was a frustrating end to a promising campaign. It's four losses came to teams still playing right now, but showed the program still couldn't quite overcome elite opponents.

"I'm frustrated. I thought this year that we got challenged four times and we lost those four games," Oran coach Ethan Evans said. "Twice against Saxony, Twin Rivers and these girls tonight. We're a young team but I told the girls, 'You're not freshmen at this point anymore. You've got to come out and be ready to play.'

"We set the school records for wins, so that's always something. I told the girls not to have their heads down and not to be ashamed. They got beat by a great team. Â… It's disappointing and it's disappointing for the seniors. I told the girls that are coming back, 'Remember how it feels.'"

Oran had no answer for Naylor's Calee Pickrell, who finished with 31 points and 11 rebounds. Kabrien Rogers added 14 for the winning Eagles.

"I've seen them play so many times. I knew we were going to have to be tough and physical underneath to beat them," Evans said. "They have three girls who are pretty big, and the sophomore, Pickrell, she just killed us down there."'

Pickrell has re-injured her ankle three times in the past three weeks, but it didn't show -- other than a momentary limp after coming down awkwardly during a battle for the ball.

"She's tough and all of her teammates are tough," Naylor coach Gene Deckard said. "She fights through every injury she's had all season."

Leah Cauble customarily led Oran with 15 points, but was MIA in the early portion of the game, without a shot attempt or assist in the first quarter and with only three points at halftime.

"That's a real good number when you're playing against her," Deckard said. "Chelsey Rigdon really guarded her well, got off screens, had teammates help and we knew where she was at all times. She's a good player, but I don't think she's seen too much of that defense.

"Every night they come to battle on defense and I think that was the key tonight. There's four minutes to go in the ball game and the other team's got 25 on the board. They're used to putting up 70 or 80, so that's hard for teams to take when all of a sudden they get shut down."

Ashlyn McIntosh and Claire Ramsey each added seven points for Oran, which shot only 37.5 percent on 18-of-48 shooting, including 2 of 17 from 3-point range.

Naylor (20-7), meanwhile, shot 54.5 percent on 24-of-44 shooting, going 2 of 5 from long distance and 11 of 18 from the free-throw line.

The two sides were polar opposites in the early going, with Naylor poised and efficient and Oran scrambling from the outset. That allowed Naylor to open up a 6-0 advantage to start, stretching it to 10-2 when Pickrell -- who was a dominant force in the first quarter -- layed the ball in at 4:27 of the first.

Naylor was up 10, 14-4, by the time Ramsey came off the Oran bench to hit a 3-pointer at the 1:54 mark. But it did little to stop the bleeding, and Pickrell completed an old-fashioned three-point play inside the period's final 30 seconds to give Naylor a 19-7 lead after one quarter.

"They came out and made some big shots early and got after us defensively," Evans said. "We had a lot of turnovers in that first quarter. We settled down after that, but they set the tone right from the get go."

Oran turned the ball over six times in the first quarter.

Pickrell helped her side extend that advantage to 25-10 when she hit the second of back-to-back buckets, this one in transition, at the 5:04 mark of the second.

Oran found itself down 26-10 when it went on a 7-3 run to end the first half. Brianna Stause and Tatum May hit back-to-back shots inside the final 18 seconds to cut the deficit to 29-17, but the momentum didn't carry over.

Naylor began the second half on a 7-0 swing of its own, capped by a 3-pointer from Pickrell, to stretch the lead to 36-17.

Even after Oran was able to hit a few buckets, it was Pickrell leading the charge again to spark a 6-0 run to end the third quarter, as Madison Gargac scored on a putback with 1:03 left in the period, and Naylor carried a 44-23 lead into the final period.

Oran showed some life late with an 8-0 run that saw Ramsey put the ball in the basket twice to slice the deficit to 49-33.

It was too little, too late for Oran, as Naylor never faltered, going on 12-0 run later in the quarter to dominate the late proceedings of a game it never seemed to be troubled by.

Naylor will face Bunker (19-9) in a state quarterfinal in Van Buren, Missouri, on Saturday.

Naylor 19 10 15 17 -- 61

Oran 7 10 5 19 -- 42

NAYLOR (61) -- Madison Gargac 5, Chelsey Rigdon 4, Kabrien Rogers 14, Hannah Cunningham 7, Calee Pickrell 31. FG 24-44, FT 11-18, F 9. (3-pointers: Gargac, Pickrell. Fouled out: None.)

ORAN (42) -- Brianna Stause 3, Tatum May 6, Ashlyn McIntosh 7, Leah Cauble 15, Jessie Long 4, Claire Ramsey 7. FG 18-48, FT 4-6, F 15. (3-pointers: Stause, Ramsey. Fouled out: Stause.)