Gasconade County Republican

Hannah Roach (above, right) looks to pass the ball during Four Rivers Conference basketball action at Sullivan last Thursday night with fellow senior Kim Buddemeyer watching the action unfold in front of her.SULLIVAN — Winning on the road in the Four Rivers Conference is usually tough no matter what sport it is.

Owensville Dutchgirl basketball has found this out the hard way throughout the month of February.

Making the trip down to Sullivan last Thursday night, Dwayne Clingman’s Dutchgirls were looking to improve their seeding position for the upcoming Class 4, District 9 basketball tournament next week in Union.

Sullivan had other ideas using a 19-4 second quarter advantage to post a 69-37 win over the visiting Dutchgirls.

“We simply did not come out ready to play against a good Sullivan team on their home floor,” Dutchgirl head coach Dwayne Clingman said. “We’ve been struggling on the road here of late and we’ll have to learn how to win on the road in order to be successful at districts.”

Falling behind 3-0 early in the first quarter, the Dutchgirls got free throws from Mandie Robertson and Kati Davis to tie the game at 3-3. That’s as close as Owensville got to the lead when Sullivan scored 13 of the next 18 points to help them to a 20-13 lead through one quarter of basketball at Sullivan High School.

Seeing the Lady Eagles rattle off 11 unanswered points to start the second quarter, Davis scored a bucket at the 2:56 mark of the quarter to end a nearly six-minute scoring drought for the Dutchgirls. Kristen Charboneau also added a bucket minutes later for OHS as they went into halftime trailing Sullivan, 39-17.

Hannah Roach paced the Dutchgirls with five first-half points.

Down 47-19 midway through the third quarter, Davis and Roach sparked a 9-3 run to trim the Lady Eagle lead to 22 at 50-28 with less than a minute left in the third.

Entering the fourth quarter, the Dutchgirls trailed Sullivan 52-28.

Unable to cut Sullivan’s lead any further, Owensville saw their conference road losing streak grow to four after their loss to the Lady Eagles Thursday night.

Roach led the visiting Dutchgirls with a team-high 15 points and was followed in double figures by Davis with 10 markers.

A bad night of shooting led to the Sullivan JV Lady Eagles snapping Owensville’s 12-game winning streak with a 26-23 win in the junior varsity contest.

Trailing 4-3 minutes into the game, the JV Dutchgirls went on a 7-2 run to take a 10-6 lead after one quarter.

Going cold on offense in the second quarter, Sullivan took advantage and went into halftime with a 16-12 lead.

Thanks to the hot shooting of Grace Schlottach, Owensville entered the fourth quarter with a 21-19 lead.

That lead did not hold up as Sullivan held the JV Dutchgirls without a field goal in the fourth quarter.

Schlottach led Owensville with a team-high 10 points and Charboneau followed with six points for the Dutchgirls.