Report by Wes Gwaltney
A long road trip was in store for the Batesville Varsity squads as they would pack up and head east to Crittenden County Friday night to take on the West Memphis Blue Devils in conference action.
To start the evening, the Lady Pioneers would encounter a prolonged start falling behind 6-0 early in the opening quarter, but the wheels would start rolling, and the buckets would start falling as they would take the lead 14-10 before the quarter.
Once they got started there was no stopping the Lady Pioneers as they would lead by twelve at the half and would stretch that lead several times over the Lady Blue Devils in the final half of action before picking up the victory 71-47 over West Memphis.
Leading the way for the Lady Pioneers was four different players in double digits as Senior Izzy Higginbottom would account for 24 points, Senior London Cuzzort would set a season-high for herself with 17 points, Junior Taylor Rush would account for 13 points and Senior Kaylee Clark would have 12.
The Pioneers would have a very tough task ahead of them in the nightcap as they would face off with the defending state co-champions in the Blue Devils.
The Pioneers would score the opening bucket, but from there on the Blue Devils would use their athleticism to take the lead and pull away from the Pioneers.
At the end of the first frame, the Pioneers would trail 17- 7 and saw the deficit grow to 43-16 by halftime.
The Pioneers would come out with a bit more intensity in the second half as they would outscore the Blue Devils by two in the third frame trailing 57-32 and would keep the gap about the same throughout the final quarter of action before falling by a final of 73-46.
Leading the scoring for Batesville was Freshmen Caden Griffin who had 19 points and Senior John Paul Morgan with 16 points.
The Pioneers will now stay on the road as they take on Paragould on Monday night, in a rescheduled game from earlier this season, with the lone ballgame starting at 6 p.m.
The Lady Pioneers will join up with the boy’s squad and continue the road trip with a visit to Jonesboro to take on the Hurricanes Friday night with JV action set to start at 5 p.m. and Varsity action to follow.
