Mehlville Girls Begin Defense of Southside Championship With Lopsided Win

Mehlville girls basketball coach Laura Bishop anticipates a roller coaster 2011-12 season.

"We have a fairly young and inexperienced team," Bishop said. "I think we are going to have our good days and our bad days."

And just two games into the new season, the Panthers have done both. Mehlville lost its opener against Cor Jesu 56-20 although it was only 23-15 at halftime.

The Panthers were on the other side of a lopsided game Monday in the opening round of the Southside Classic. Mehlville defeated St. Elizabeth's Academy 61-14.

Mehlville defeated the Hawks 72-64 in the first round last year .

Both teams were short-handed, missing their top returning scorers. Natalie Daugherty missed the game for the Hawks while Sierra Gray missed it for the Panthers. Both are expected back later in the tournament.

The Panthers were dominant from start to finish Monday as sophomore Emily Fox scored the first eight points.

"I've got to be more of a leader this year," Fox said. "I think if we work together, we can have a good season. I think a key will be how we play defense."

Obviously, the defense was stellar Monday as St. Elizabeth's did not score a point in the first quarter or the fourth quarter. In fact, 11 of the Hawks' 14 points came in the second quarter.

Mehlville lost two of its three double figure scorers from last year including top scorer Chanese Washington, who is now at Lindenwood University-Belleville. Gray, a junior, is back after averaging 11.5 points a game. No other returning player averaged even five points a game.

"I think this is a team which will have opportunities to score," Bishop said. "The key will be how we finish and we did a good job of that today."

The Panthers had good balance Monday with 10 different players scoring. Starters Emily Fox and Maddie Gollihur led the way with 12 and 10 points respectively but the bench contributed 24 points led by Jessica Crawford and Alex Adelman who had eight points each.

"This is a year in which everybody needs to contribute for us to be successful," Bishop said. "The defense is going to be key and I thought we did a better job today of anticipating on defense and taking risks."

Mehlville advances to Tuesday's semifinals at 6:30 p.m. against the winner of Monday's first round game between Notre Dame and Bayless. The Southside Tournament championship game is scheduled for 8 p.m. Thursday at Affton.