Girls basketball: Ottawa shuts out Morris entire first half of 35-11 Interstate Eight victory

Ottawa (in white) and Morris (in maroon) tip off their Wednesday night Interstate Eight Conference game in Kingman Gym on Jan. 19, 2022.

OTTAWA - Points were few and far between Wednesday evening for the Ottawa girls basketball team.

Luckily for the Pirates, they were even fewer and farther between for Morris.

Host Ottawa opened an Interstate Eight Conference girls-boys doubleheader Wednesday in Kingman Gym with a defensively powered 35-11 victory over its visitors from Grundy County.

“We preach in our system offensively, move the ball side-to-side, and if you get an open look, let it go,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “We practice shooting beyond the arc on a daily basis, and we have good shooters and confident shooters. But we’ll have nights they don’t fall sometimes, and that’s when we have to rely on our defense.

“That’s our other staple, our man-to-man defense, and we were really good on that end of the floor tonight.”

Ottawa’s strong defensive start coupled with Morris’ first-half struggles shooting and taking care of the basketball led to the Pirates not only shutting out Morris in the first quarter, but the entirety of the first half. It wasn’t until Maddy Shannon put in a bucket in the paint 44 seconds into the second half that Morris got on the scoreboard.

The visitors were only down 15-2 at that point due to Ottawa’s own offensive difficulties — the Pirates scoring just a dozen first-half points — but the way the night was going for Morris’ shooters that 13-point deficit had to look more like Denali than a molehill.

“We’ve been struggling to score all year,” Morris coach Luke Windy said. “Our last three games have been 19, 14 and now 11 [points]. It’s something we knew coming in here.

“Defensively, Ottawa missed a lot of shots for us, but I also thought we did a lot of things well on that end to keep us in the game as long as possible. ...

“Defensively, I’m happy. Offensively, we have to find a way to put that orange thing through the rim.”

The Pirates — who led 7-0 after one quarter and 12-0 at halftime — moved to 17-3 overall and 7-1 in the Interstate Eight by completing the conference sweep.

Ottawa center Cheyenne Joachim was the most consistent offensive force in a game with very little offensive consistency, finishing with 16 points to go with her seven rebounds.

“We preached at halftime to try to get the ball down to Cheyenne,” Moore said, “because they were switching some littles on her. We did a good job of that, and she got some looks around the rim and had a nice night.”

Zoe Harris also pulled down seven rebounds for Ottawa to go with her three points, Kendall Lowery scored six points and accumulated three steals off the bench, Grace Carroll finished with seven points, and Gabi Krueger was the only player on the night to finish with multiple assists with three.

Morris — led by three points apiece courtesy of Addison Stacy (three steals) and Maddy Shannon, with Alexis McKerrow tallying a team-high five rebounds — committed 22 turnovers in falling to 4-15 overall, 0-8 in the I-8.

Ottawa is scheduled to tip off again Friday when the Pirates visit Interstate Eight-leading Sycamore.

Morris, meanwhile, is set to return to action Thursday with another I-8 road game, this one at Rochelle.