Lady Pirate basketball squad knocks off Billings, Stockton in winning week

The Ash Grove High School girls basketball team was able to defeat Billings and Stockton last week, while the boys team lost to Billings in their only game last week.
The Lady Pirates hosted Billings on Thursday, Jan. 9 and came away with a 68-27 win.
Ash Grove led 26-4 after the first quarter and never looked back, adding 15 points in the second quarter, 19 points in the third quarter and eight points in the fourth quarter for the 41-point victory.
Khloe Moad led Ash Grove with 22 points; Kennedi Climer added 20 points and Brittany Gilliland ended the game with 10 points.
On Monday, Jan. 6, the Lady Pirates traveled to Stockton and came home with a narrow two-point win, 48-46.
The Lady Tigers led Ash Grove 6-4 at the end of the first quarter and increased their lead to 21-19 by halftime. Stockton added another 15 points in the third quarter, while the Lady Pirates had 12 points, but Stockton still led 36-31. The Lady Pirates tightened up on defense in the fourth quarter and held Stockton to just eight points, while scoring 17 points of their own to take the game 48-46.
Climer led Ash Grove with 14 points, while Moad added 11 points in the win.
Ash Grove is now 8-4 on the season and will host Sparta tomorrow night.
Boys
For the Ash Grove boy basketballers, they traveled to Billings on Tuesday, Jan. 7, and came home with a 75-26 loss.
Billings jumped out to a 24-4 first quarter lead and never looked back, outscoring Ash Grove 27-7 in the second quarter; 16-11 in the third quarter and 8-4 in the fourth quarter.
“Give credit to Billings, they took us out of our comfort zone and used their
length and experience to make things difficult,” said head coach Grant Williamson. “We just went through a really tough stretch of our schedule and are looking to learn from those experiences to be better going forward.”
Brock Mooneyham led Ash Grove with 10 points; Jake Thompson and Noah Phipps each had seven points in the loss.
Ash Grove’s game against Marion C. Early for Friday, Jan. 10, was postponed for a later date due to winter weather.
With the loss, the Pirates fall to 1-10 on the season and were scheduled to host Fordland on Tuesday night.