Perryville wins in low scoring affair at Saxony

The Perryville Pirates girls basketball team defeated the Saxony Lutheran Crusaders 45-26 on Wednesday at Saxony Lutheran High School.

Aby Amberger led the Pirates on offense with 24 points, while Kenzie Keys paced the Crusaders with 19.

The first half of the game was slow, as neither team could break through the opposing defense, and no open shots fell.

Perryville eventually found some offense to carry a 17-2 lead into the break. Pirates head coach Jason Dreyer said he was happy with the defensive effort from his team.

“I feel like our energy on defense was really good tonight. We had a plan to be more aggressive on the ball handlers and force them into making bad passes,” Dreyer said. “I think we were really aggressive on the ball and guarded hard. We intercepted most of their passes, or they threw the ball out of bounds creating a lot of turnovers for us.”

Both teams found their offense in the second half on mostly fast break points and free throws as there were a ton of fouls called. Saxony just could not make up the difference by trading baskets as the Pirates took the win.

The Pirates next play in the annual Mayor's Cup against St. Vincent on Saturday at 3 p.m. while Saxony hosts Sikeston on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

Dreyer said his team will have to play their best game of the season to knock off the Indians.

“We're gonna have to play probably our best game of the year. They're obviously really, really good, and it's a rivalry game,” Dreyer said. “We have to have two really good days of practice and stick to our game plan. We’re just going to play as hard as we possibly can and see where that takes us.”