CHESTERFIELD – The offense of the Eureka girls basketball team resembles the Gateway Arch, with players evenly spaced out around the three-point line.
Kylee Pickens is the museum underneath.
The 5-foot-7 spark plug, who leads the team in offensive rebounds, often is the player who penetrates amongst the trees and locates the open shooter.
On Thursday, she was the one hitting the monumental shots.
“I was open, and the shots happened to fall,” Pickens said.
Pickens drained a three to end the first half, then sank a pair of long-range bombs directly after halftime as Eureka rallied to defeat Marquette 60-48 Thursday in a Suburban Yellow Conference clash at Marquette High.
Eureka (14-8), which won its third consecutive game, moved to 3-0 in the conference and into a first-place tie with Pattonville atop the league standings.
The Wildcats certainly are not afraid to let it fly from long range. They average 27.2 three-pointers attempted per game and hoisted 41 in a victory over Parkway South on Jan. 26.
But after sophomores Marleigh Allen and Mia Cuneio connected early in the first quarter on Thursday, Eureka struggled mightily from long range for most of the first half.
“We were missing a lot of shots at the beginning, but it wasn’t anything we were worried about,” Eureka senior Bailey Boulay said. “Keep shooting and eventually they’ll fall.”
But Boulay was tightly face-guarded and denied the ball. The triple threat of Cuneio, Allen and Blaine Schutte, who combined to make 101 threes this season, could not find the shooting touch, and Marquette (12-8) took advantage.
Jessica Aldenderfer dove to the floor in the backcourt and found Macie McNece for a layup and three-point play. McNece led the Mustangs with 17 points. A coast-to-coast layup and subsequent three-pointer by MaryAnn Kenyon gave Marquette a 24-15 lead.
“Marquette plays so hard. That was the question, ‘Could we match their intensity?’” Eureka coach C.J. Herbert said.
Led by Pickens and Cuneio, Eureka changed momentum through their willingness to drive the ball inside and challenge Marquette’s elite rim protector, Sydney Bode, who leads the area with 4.3 blocks per game.
Pickens penetrated the lane and found Kori Robinson on a backdoor cut, Cuneio knocked down a three and a tough layup in traffic, and when Pickens drained a left wing three just before halftime, Eureka took a 27-25 advantage into the locker room.
“We knew that (Bode) could block shots, so we decided we needed to drive, come to stops and look for cutters and open shooters,” Pickens said.
Pickens stayed scorching hot after intermission, sinking threes on consecutive possessions to help Eureka extend its lead to 33-28. The long-distance barrage produced only her 11th, 12th, and 13th threes of the season for a team that has connected on 174 triples this year.
“Those were huge at a time we were struggling to get threes knocked down other places,” Herbert said. “That was a big moment for us.”
Boulay scored her first field goal late in the third quarter by ripping the ball away from a Marquette player in the backcourt and driving it to the hoop. The Wildcats’ defensive intensity continued to increase, culminating in a wild sequence where they scored seven points in 10 seconds.
“In the second half, we really got into it defensively, playing hard, girls diving on the floor, and that turned the tide for us,” Herbert said.
Pickens started the 10-second blitz with a steal in the backcourt and assist to Allen; Cuneio stole the ensuing inbounds pass and laid it in, and when Boulay scooped up a loose ball and drained a corner 3, Eureka had its biggest lead, 51-37.
“We were just being really aggressive. We were in the spots we needed to be to get steals, and we converted,” Boulay said.
Boulay scored eight points – seven below her average – but she did not force shots or lose composure despite a defense employed to stop her. Instead, she trusted her teammates.
“We’re definitely used to the ball being in her hands more than when she’s being face-guarded, but we were prepared for it,” Pickens said. “We knew she would stay calm and we would get her open. We weren’t stressing. We played as normal as we could.”
Four different Wildcats reached double figures: Cuneio (15), Pickens (12), Allen (10) and Blaine Schutte (10).
“If we’re going to hold Bailey Boulay to eight points, you would think we’d be ok, but all of their kids made plays, they caused turnovers, got rebounds at critical times, and we just didn’t respond,” Marquette coach Tim Bowdern said.
Marquette’s next opportunity to respond will be at Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, Indiana, the site where the film “Hoosiers” was filmed. The Mustangs will face Lindbergh at 4 p.m. Saturday. The two programs also squared off at Hoosier Gym on Feb. 2, 2020, resulting in a 62-52 victory by Marquette .
“It’s a cool event that we get to play in. We watched the movie, they get the Indiana-thing and it should be a good time,” Bowdern said.
And Eureka has been having a good time as well, as winners of eight out of 10 games after starting off 6-6 during a brutal, early-season schedule.
“We’re getting better every day,” Boulay said. “With every amazing team we’ve played, it’s made us better.”
Photos by Ben Vessa. (More photos at metro_sports_stl Instagram).