Kirkwood Girls Downed in End by Zumwalt West

The girls kept it close, up to the last one and a half minutes, but then two Zumwalt West girls hit seven out of eight free throws to ice the Class 5 sectional game at the .

The Pioneers lost to the Zumwalt West Jaguars 40-48, finishing the season with a 24-5 record.

Kirkwood senior Natalie Fryrear was team-high with 16, but coach Brad Sutterer was reluctant to pick out any of the five seniors as stand-outs.

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“We had a great group of players, especially five seniors here, who did the great things as a team,” he said. “They weren’t selfish. They cared about one another. We were a true family.

"You can talk about the stats," Sutterer said. "Natalie Fryrear had four threes, but it’s a collective group. You talk about Dajae Williams, who played small forward, wing and point guard; talk about Lianna Doty, who did an excellent point guard; Kelah Martin, some girls played a lot of minutes.”

Kirkwood was within a few points through the first half, then Zumwalt had a six-point run in the third quarter. Kirkwood came close but never recovered.

“We were expending a lot of energy trying to pressure and get some steals,” Sutterer said, “which we got, but they hit some free throws down the stretch.”

He said they got some good looks at the basket, but just didn’t finish them.

It came down to Zumwalt girls hitting from the foul line.

“The girls did a good job of hitting their free throws,” Zunwalt coach Monica Tritz said. “Kirkwood’s defense was unbelievable tonight, and we knew they’d be tough and they did a great job.”

She said they weren’t on the boards like they wanted to, which she attributed to Kirkwood’s defense.