Last Monday, the Sikeston girls basketball team fell to Saxony Lutheran after leading nearly the entire game. Looking for a different outcome, the Lady Bulldogs hosted New Madrid County Central (10-5, 1-2 SEMO Conference) on Monday night, with Sikeston (5-6, 2-0 SEMO Conference) still making it nail-biting down-the-stretch. Heading into the final eight minutes with a 10 point lead, Sikeston was able to put the ball in the hands of their best player — senior Taydrianna Barnett — and she would deliver, as the Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady Eagles 69-65 at the Sikeston Field House. Monday marked the third-straight 30-point game for Barnett. She finished with 33 points on 11 of 21 shooting and added 13 rebounds for a double-double. “She’s a catalyst,” Sikeston head coach Alisha Wills said. “She’s a spark plug. Her teammates have the utmost confidence in her. She’s a hustler. Even when she’s saying that she’s tired or she can’t breathe, she keeps ongoing. She doesn’t stop, and she doesn’t let up. She’s a competitor through and through.” Barnett came up big in the late-goings for the Lady Bulldogs as well. In the fourth quarter, Barnett made 6 of her 8 free throw attempts and finished 8 of 10 for the game. She also tallied the final points of the contest, after an ensuing inbounds pass sailed over the heads of her and NMCC’s Shakyra Wright, but quicker to the ball, Barnett took it straight to the rim for a layup to make it a four-point game just as time was about to run out. Leading up to that play, Sikeston staved off a furious NMCC comeback, as the Lady Eagles had a pair of chances to either tie or take the lead. On the first opportunity, NMCC had to foul — which they did — and ultimately sent Barnett to the line for a chance to put the Lady Bulldogs up by either two or three points. Barnett went on to make her first shot at the foul line, which then forced Lady Eagles head coach Toby Heeb to use a timeout — which was ultimately to try and ice her. The plan worked at first, as Barnett missed her second free-throw, and NMCC gathered the rebound. With the ball in junior Ayannah Ruff’s hands, she took it straight into the paint and looked to tie the game, but a wild shot went off the mark after the Lady Bulldogs forced her into a tough look. “Either way, we were going to attack the rim,” said Heeb on the last play. “Down three or down two, we wanted to go to the rim quick. If we were down three, we’d look for a kick-out, but we got about what we wanted. We wanted to look for a layup or a dump-down, and they helped pretty well and made Ayannah take a tough one their.” With possession, and time winding down, Sikeston’s Karris Allen had the ball in her hands and was trying to make a play. However, as she was near the Sikeston bench, she was tightly guarded by a Lady Eagles defender, made a slight move, and got called for an offensive foul. That violation gave the ball back to NMCC and would also give Allen her fifth foul of the game, forcing her to sit and watch for the remaining 34.4 seconds. On the very next possession, junior Alivia Hartman got the ball near the far-baseline and tried to wrap a pass around a Sikeston defender. Freshman Nayla Bonner, though, was right there to pick off the pass, and ultimately lead to the win. “That had to make us adjust, and we did,” Wills said. “The steal by the freshman down there, that was huge. For them to turn it over and right into her hands, and that’s all you could ask for when you throw somebody in a situation like that.” Continuing to struggle to close out games has been a storyline for the young Lady Bulldogs this season. Wills, though, commended her team for improving in those situations. “I think it comes down to remaining disciplined and just seeing things,” Wills said. “I think sometimes things may move quickly on us, and we don’t, and we don’t capitalize in that situation. Sometimes, it’s beyond what we can see right now. I think each game, though, we get better and better about anticipating those things.” Despite being down by 10 points with one quarter left, Heeb told his team that they were not out of the game in the least. Adjusting to how Sikeston was playing and switching defensive schemes helped with that as well. “We switched our defense up to man,” Heeb said. “We knew that we had to keep going and tried to play fast to get points. I told them at halftime that the with the flow of the game, they’re never out of it, no matter what the score was. It was such a fast-paced game, which was exactly what they were wanting. “I think in the fourth quarter, we finally started getting out in transition a little bit more. Our man-to-man defense was doing a good job, and I think we controlled Barnett a little bit better in the fourth quarter for the most part.” Another reason for the comeback was the play from Ruff. Ruff finished with a team-high 28 points, including 6 of 10 (60%) from three-point range, while also grabbing five rebounds. “She’s willing to take a big shot,” Heeb said. “Sometimes, it might be a little questionable, and with her and with good players, you got to live with the good and the bad. She came out hot in the first quarter and cooled off a little bit. Then, in the fourth quarter, she got going again and picked it up offensively. I thought she did a good job of attacking and finding open people also.” Jimmya Caldwell-Newson added 14 points for the Lady Eagles, while Shakyra Wright had nine points, and Hartman and Latavia Brooks each had five. Hartman led the team with 15 rebounds as well. Allen helped Sikeston with 15 points, and added a double-double as well, with 11 boards. Sophmore Amyari Blissett also finished in double-figures, with 10, on 3 of 11 shooting. Sikeston returns to action on Thursday when it faces Notre Dame at Notre Dame Regional High School in Cape Girardeau. Junior varsity starts at 6 p.m., with varsity to follow. New Madrid County Central returns home for a four-game home-stand, starting Thursday with Portageville. Varsity plans to start around 7:30 p.m. NMCC 18 14 15 18 — 65 Sikeston 20 19 18 12 — 69 NMCC (65) — Ayannah Ruff 28, Jimmya Caldwell-Newson 14, Shakra Wright 9, Alivia Hartman 5, Latavia Brooks 5, Mastajah Walker 3, Isis Ducker 1. FG 23, FT 11-31, F 16. (3-pointers: Ruff 6, Caldwell-Newson. Fouled out: none) SIKESTON (69) — Taydrianna Barnett 33, Karris Allen 15, Amyari Blissett 10, Armani Hodges 4, Shania Hodges 4, Camryn Self 3. FG 26, FT 14-23, F 20. (3-pointers: Barnett, Self, Allen. Fouled out: Allen)