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Liberty, MO —
After Wednesday night’s 35-22 season-ending Class 4 sectional loss to Smithville at Liberty High School, Randy Draper reflected on his first season as Grain Valley’s girls basketball coach.
He concluded the season had been a blessing.
“I had never coached high school girls (basketball),” said Draper, a former Grain Valley boys coach and the current coach of the Eagles girls tennis squad. “I had a ball, and they were just a great team to coach. I had neat seniors – great personalities. Kids looked up to them.”
Likewise, Grain Valley junior Rachel Reddell, who led the Eagles with six points Wednesday, felt that Draper performed the job admirably.
“He was a lot different than Broughton (former head coach Steve Broughton),” Reddell said. “I liked Broughton, too, but Draper was just new and it was easy just to jump right back into things with him.”
Until the third quarter, Draper and the Eagles were in position to continue their season together. Grain Valley (18-9) took the opening lead on Mariah Hernandez’s basket and didn’t trail until Paige Imhoff scored late to give Smithville a 6-5 lead after one quarter. Trailing 8-7, the Eagles went on a 6-0 second-quarter run to take their biggest lead. The Warriors didn’t reclaim the lead until Bethany Pierce’s buzzer-beating putback gave them a 14-13 halftime edge.
To Reddell, Pierce’s basket wasn’t momentum-changing.
“We had a whole other half to play,” she said. “But we just didn’t come out and play it right, I guess. We could’ve played it better.”
One way the Eagles could’ve played better the second half, Reddell suggested, was to have answered Smithville’s 6-0 opening run. Sparked by the spurt, the Warriors went on to outscore the Eagles 13-4 the third quarter.
“They just got those couple points in a row, and we just got down and didn’t come back,” Reddell said.
Having lost to Smithville 49-31 in a December meeting that “was never close,” the Eagles knew the Warriors wouldn’t be happy keeping it close during the second half, according to Draper.
“It was going to be tough coming out (of halftime), and we turned it (over) a couple times,” he said. “And then, we had a couple shots at it that we didn’t get to go in that made a big difference in that game (tonight). But that’s the way big games are.”
After Wednesday night’s 35-22 season-ending Class 4 sectional loss to Smithville at Liberty High School, Randy Draper reflected on his first season as Grain Valley’s girls basketball coach.
He concluded the season had been a blessing.
“I had never coached high school girls (basketball),” said Draper, a former Grain Valley boys coach and the current coach of the Eagles girls tennis squad. “I had a ball, and they were just a great team to coach. I had neat seniors – great personalities. Kids looked up to them.”
Likewise, Grain Valley junior Rachel Reddell, who led the Eagles with six points Wednesday, felt that Draper performed the job admirably.
“He was a lot different than Broughton (former head coach Steve Broughton),” Reddell said. “I liked Broughton, too, but Draper was just new and it was easy just to jump right back into things with him.”
Until the third quarter, Draper and the Eagles were in position to continue their season together. Grain Valley (18-9) took the opening lead on Mariah Hernandez’s basket and didn’t trail until Paige Imhoff scored late to give Smithville a 6-5 lead after one quarter. Trailing 8-7, the Eagles went on a 6-0 second-quarter run to take their biggest lead. The Warriors didn’t reclaim the lead until Bethany Pierce’s buzzer-beating putback gave them a 14-13 halftime edge.
To Reddell, Pierce’s basket wasn’t momentum-changing.
“We had a whole other half to play,” she said. “But we just didn’t come out and play it right, I guess. We could’ve played it better.”
One way the Eagles could’ve played better the second half, Reddell suggested, was to have answered Smithville’s 6-0 opening run. Sparked by the spurt, the Warriors went on to outscore the Eagles 13-4 the third quarter.
“They just got those couple points in a row, and we just got down and didn’t come back,” Reddell said.
Having lost to Smithville 49-31 in a December meeting that “was never close,” the Eagles knew the Warriors wouldn’t be happy keeping it close during the second half, according to Draper.
“It was going to be tough coming out (of halftime), and we turned it (over) a couple times,” he said. “And then, we had a couple shots at it that we didn’t get to go in that made a big difference in that game (tonight). But that’s the way big games are.”
To ensure Wednesday’s rematch also ended with a double-digit margin of victory, Smithville outscored Grain Valley 8-5 the final quarter – or rather, Madison Nelson did. The junior guard scored all of Smithville’s fourth-quarter points to finish with a team-leading 16 points.
According to Warriors coach Trevor Mosby, Nelson typically takes over games during the fourth quarter. But normally, her command of the final quarter is stronger than it was Wednesday, when Nelson “struggled in the fourth quarter with her decision-making,” he said.
“Our district championship game and everything was Madison taking over,” he said. “Just getting the ball, running clock out, getting fouled and knocking free throws.”
With Nelson leading them to victory, the Warriors (24-5) advanced to meet Pleasant Hill in quarterfinal action at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Independence Events Center. They also continued their quest to return to the Class 4 state championship game. Smithville was runner-up in 2011 to undefeated St. Dominic.
Draper praised how the Eagles fought to halt Smithville’s postseason run.
“We were really who I thought we were,” he said. “We compete unbelievably hard. And an awfully good basketball team was having trouble playing offense against us.”
