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From the Lee Summit Journal (11/30/04)

Sion storms past West, wins 64-27
By Nick Parker The Journal Staff

On paper, Lee’s Summit West and Notre Dame de Sion appeared to be pretty similar teams.

But size and experience helped Sion stand above West and capture a 64-27 win Monday night in the first round of the Bronco Invitational at Lee’s Summit North.

"I looked at the roster and saw that they didn’t have any seniors on the team either. I thought ‘Here’s a team in a similar position as us,’" said West head coach Kirk Hipple. "But they’re a solid team. I think three or four of those girls are back from last year. That was a team that went all the way to quarterfinals before losing to Lee’s Summit."

Quick guard play helped the Titans stay close in the first quarter. In fact, West held them twice in the opening minutes and trailed by just three points at 17-14 when the quarter ended.

Poor shooting by the Titans, combined with dominant inside play by Sion’s Kelley Murphy and Morgan Henderson, allowed the Storm to widen the gap in the second quarter.

West scored just three points in the second quarter, all by sophomore Alyssa Mullen who was 1-of-2 from the line and hit a short jumper during the eight-minute stretch.

Sion stretched the lead with both strong play under the basket and solid outside shooting from junior Amanda Barnard. Barnard had a game-high 29 points during the contest, including six three-pointers.

"What a threat they are," Hipple said. "They can hurt you both inside and outside. Then, to be able to get the offensive rebounds like they did. Those second chances hurt us. We’ve got to find a way to limit those. We learned a valuable lesson tonight."

Despite the frustration of seeing his squad struggle against the bigger, more experienced Sion team, Hipple said there were positives to pull from the game. While the team didn’t shoot particularly well (8-of-15 from the floor), he said he expected to see more of those shots fall as the team develops maturity and patience.

"We’re a young team and sometimes I think we look for the first open shot instead of waiting for the right shot," he said. "I think we saw that some later in the game when they started pulling away. I think the girls got frustrated and went for the first available shot thinking that was the only one they might get."

Tournament action continues for the Titans at 5:30 p.m. tonight when they take on North Kansas City.