Crest girls drop home game

COLONY — Terry Messenger had to become a messenger of sorts for his Crest High girls’ squad Tuesday.
“I had to tell them that the other guys were going to start missing eventually,” Messenger said. “I wanted to remind them we weren’t playing against Kobe Bryant.”
For a while, it sure seemed that way.
The visitors from Marais Des Cygnes Valley High were white-hot from outside to start their contest against the Lady Lancers.
The Trojan girls drained five three-pointers in the first quarter, exploding to a 24-5 lead.
“It was unbelievable,” Messenger said. “It wasn’t like they were unguarded shots. But if they had a little bit of space, they were shooting.”
And those shots were going in.
“You never know what the psychological effect would have been otherwise, but if we could have held them to the eight to 10 points that we did in the other quarters, you wonder how the game would have turned out,” Messenger said.
And as Messenger predicted, MDCV’s hot shooting touch cooled a bit, while Crest’s offense began to click.
Crest outscored the Trojans 14-8 in the second period to close the gap to 32-19. But the Lady Lancers only scored two points in the third quarter, eliminating any further hopes of a comeback.
Kurston Gilliland was a monster inside for Crest, scoring a game-high 19 points.
“And she probably could have scored 50,” Messenger said. “We just had a hard time getting the ball inside to her. When we could, she scored. The second quarter was about the only time we could get it to her consistently.”
Ashley Catt added seven for Crest.
Meanwhile, Kylie Vanderpool drained three three-pointers as part of her 17 points. Stormie Bush had four treys as part of her 14 points and Brianna Bogue scored 11 for Marais Des Cygnes Valley.
Crest (1-18) wraps up regular season play on Thursday against St. Paul.
Crest (5-14-2-10—31): Catt 0-7-4-7, B. Strickler 0-0-1-0, K. Strickler 0-1-2-1, Kur. Gilliland 9-1-5-19, Holman 2-0-5-4, Kol. Gilliland 0-0-5-0. TOTALS: 11-9-22-31.
MDCV (24-8-11-11—54) (FG/3 pt): Bogue 3-5-2-11, A. Bush 1-0-0-2, Spencer 0-0-5-0, McCurdy 0-0-1-0, Wainwright 0-0-2-0, S. Bush 0/4-2-2-14, Vanderpool 2/3-4-3-17, Phillips 0-3-0-3, Schimmel 1/1-2-4-7. TOTALS: 7/8-16-19-54.