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The Lady Pirates practiced Tuesday, something many would have thought would not be the case.
The Hannibal Lady Pirates advanced to the second round of the Class 4 District 8 tournament after defeating Marshall 38-28 in the opening round.
Waiting for Hannibal is a team that has given just about everybody, judging from its 20-3, 11-1 record in conference, trouble: Kirksville.
In two games with the Lady Tigers, Hannibal has lost by a total of 39 and 49 points.
Going forward into the third meeting between the two teams, Head Coach Ron Greenwell said the team is going to focus on its defense as it played a big role in the opening round victory over Marshall.
“I tell you what, our main thing that we are focusing on is defense,” Greenwell said. “Kirksville put up a lot of points against us in the last two games we played them. They beat us by 39 and 49 and hopefully we can narrow that gap a little bit with a few adjustments here or there. Hopefully Kirksville won’t shoot lights out like it did the past couple of games against us. Hopefully we can survive and give them a better showing.”
Greenwell said he hopes the defensive performance from the opening round will set a precedent for what is to come.
“That is one thing that we have been craving this year on the defensive side that we haven’t quite got to, but last night we got a lot of help defensively,” Greenwell said. “You know, girls helping on lob passes and helping away from the ball. It’s something we have discussed tonight and if we play defense like we did last night hopefully we can give Kirksville a good run for its money and hopefully the fans will see that too.”
It’s not going to be an easy task for Hannibal to pull the upset on Kirksville, as Hannibal has two more wins than Kirksville has losses, something Greenwell freely admits.
The coach said the team is playing with nothing to lose and will need a perfect performance to put away Kirksville.
“I think they realize that it is one or done. We either get it done or we watch the district championship,” Greenwell said. “For the three seniors, they have a lot invested in this, they have been out for the last four years and have never beat Kirksville. We need to be focusing on the positives we had and it will take a perfect game for us to stay with Kirksville. All the stars will have to align right and if they do, they do, and if they don’t we’ll have to wait until further seasons to improve ourselves.”
The Lady Pirates practiced Tuesday, something many would have thought would not be the case.
The Hannibal Lady Pirates advanced to the second round of the Class 4 District 8 tournament after defeating Marshall 38-28 in the opening round.
Waiting for Hannibal is a team that has given just about everybody, judging from its 20-3, 11-1 record in conference, trouble: Kirksville.
In two games with the Lady Tigers, Hannibal has lost by a total of 39 and 49 points.
Going forward into the third meeting between the two teams, Head Coach Ron Greenwell said the team is going to focus on its defense as it played a big role in the opening round victory over Marshall.
“I tell you what, our main thing that we are focusing on is defense,” Greenwell said. “Kirksville put up a lot of points against us in the last two games we played them. They beat us by 39 and 49 and hopefully we can narrow that gap a little bit with a few adjustments here or there. Hopefully Kirksville won’t shoot lights out like it did the past couple of games against us. Hopefully we can survive and give them a better showing.”
Greenwell said he hopes the defensive performance from the opening round will set a precedent for what is to come.
“That is one thing that we have been craving this year on the defensive side that we haven’t quite got to, but last night we got a lot of help defensively,” Greenwell said. “You know, girls helping on lob passes and helping away from the ball. It’s something we have discussed tonight and if we play defense like we did last night hopefully we can give Kirksville a good run for its money and hopefully the fans will see that too.”
It’s not going to be an easy task for Hannibal to pull the upset on Kirksville, as Hannibal has two more wins than Kirksville has losses, something Greenwell freely admits.
The coach said the team is playing with nothing to lose and will need a perfect performance to put away Kirksville.
“I think they realize that it is one or done. We either get it done or we watch the district championship,” Greenwell said. “For the three seniors, they have a lot invested in this, they have been out for the last four years and have never beat Kirksville. We need to be focusing on the positives we had and it will take a perfect game for us to stay with Kirksville. All the stars will have to align right and if they do, they do, and if they don’t we’ll have to wait until further seasons to improve ourselves.”
The coach defined perfection as out-playing Kirksville in every aspect of the game.
Even if Hannibal doesn’t execute in one, Greenwell said, the Lady Tigers will pounce.
“There are six facets of the game. We have to shoot well, play great defense, we have to rebound and limit our turnovers. If we can do all those things, maybe we’ll have a shot,” Greenwell said. “If one of those things go wrong, Kirksville is a strong enough team that they can pick their poison on which one they can dominate you on. It will take a perfect game from us to compete with that team. If we played them 100 times with the way things look Kirksville would beat us 99 out of 100.”
Greenwell added, “We’re hoping with the win we had and the way we have been playing lately that we can give them a run for their money and put on a good show for the fans as well.”
Tip-off between Hannibal and Kirksville is set to take place at 4:30 p.m. today, Feb. 22 in Mexico, Mo.
