Menu
Lady Mules roll in home opener
The Poplar Bluff girls basketball team held its home opener on Monday — and there wasn’t much to complain about for Lady Mules fans as the team took care of Bloomfield/Richland 66-20.
“We played really good defense,” Poplar Bluff coach Soley Dugas said. “We came together and communicated really well. There are just a few little things that we’ve been trying to emphasize and it goes to show that once those little things come together good things happen as it did tonight.”
Ireland Gowen had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Addy Valenzuela was just short of a double-double with 14 points and nine steals.
Steals and rebounds were the theme of the night for the Lady Mules as the team recorded 30 rebounds and 23 steals, leading to points on the scoreboard more often than not.
“We’ve been playing solid defense,” said Dugas. “But the problem was converting that into points on the other end of the floor. We’re starting to improve there and I can’t complain about all those steals getting converted for buckets.”
The Lady Mules were dominant from the start, starting the game off with a 7-2 run, eventually going up 13-5 after eight minutes and going into halftime with a 27-13 lead.
The second half was no different as the Lady Mules took advantage of fast breaks with a 10-2 run in the first four minutes. From there it was only a matter of how many points the Lady Mules would have by the time the final buzzer sounded, which gave Poplar Bluff its fourth win of the year so far.
Going into Monday, the Lady Mules went 3-1 at the SEMO Conference Tournament last week after losing the season opener down in Paragould, Arkansas, giving the team some buzz among fans in the early going.
“We’ve had our struggles recently,” Dugas said. “This is my second year coaching and I went in telling them that the good thing about the bottom is that you can only go up. Every loss is a lesson. We certainly had a lot of lessons last year and I think we’re showing that we have a lot of potential this year.”
The Lady Mules will finish up a two-game home stand on Thursday as they’ll host Scott County Central. The junior varsity contest tips off at 6 p.m., with varsity to follow.