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Sports

Ladue Girls Capture Suburban East

The Rams defeated Clayton 55-26 for their 20th victory of the season Friday night at Washington University.

Pie was not on the menu Friday night for the Ladue girls basketball team, at least not the kind they had Tuesday night.

The Rams had their perfect season and 19-game winning streak halted in dramatic and embarrassing fashion by Whitfield. The Warriors hit nine 3-point field goals in the first half en route to a 55-31 victory.

"We ate some humble pie in that one," Ladue Coach Cord Dockery said. "The girls just thought that they could lace up the high tops and go out there and win. We had just come off a big win against Jennings and Jennings had beaten Whitfield so they thought that meant a win for us."

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It was a lesson which was learned, at least by the Rams' performance in their rivalry game with Clayton Friday night. Ladue led from start to finish in a 55-26 victory at Washington University. That clinched the Suburban East Conference title for Ladue, its first since the 2002-03 season.

"Winning the conference is huge for us," Ladue senior Claire Milton said. "We needed a game like this after the game the other night. I think we just expected to go out there and win against Whitfield. We learned that you have to play 100 percent all of the time."

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The Rams were a determined bunch Friday as they scored eight points in the first 1:39 of the game before Clayton called a timeout.

"I knew we needed a good start although I didn't know how we would respond after the loss," Dockery said. "It was senior night which can be a distraction. It was at Washington University which can be a distraction. But they were ready to go."

It was never a game after the quick start as the Rams had a double digit lead in the first quarter.

Ladue was up 23-7 early in the second quarter when Clayton made its only run of the game, scoring the next seven points. Ladue center Taylor Robinson picked up her third foul with 2:55 to play in the second quarter but the Greyhounds did not score while she was on the bench for the rest of the half.

The Rams started the second half just as they did the first, scoring the first 13 points in just over five minutes.

"We had played Clayton earlier in the season and we knew who we needed to lock down defensively and I thought we did a good job of that," Dockery said.

The five Greyhound starters combined for just 11 points in the game.

"I thought we did a pretty good job of distributing the ball on offense as well and we were able to make some shots," Dockery said.

Robinson and Lauren Maclin dominated the inside with 18 and 14 points respectively for Ladue, which went undefeated in the Suburban East Conference with a 5-0 mark. The win was also the 20th of the season for the Rams, with just the one loss to Whitfield.

"Winning 20 is nice but I am most excited about clinching the conference," said Dockery, whose team has road games against Rockwood Summit Monday and University City Wednesday to close out the regular season.

Clayton, which had won four of its last five games, fell to 2-2 in the conference and 8-13 overall.

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