Lady Bulldogs Struggle Against #8 Ranked West Plains without Dodson

RoMoAthletics
Jan 16
4 min read

Senior guard Mariah Watkins scored 20 points in the loss. (Photo by Cooper Schacht)

January 16th, 2026

With news on Thursday that All-State Jr guard Rylee Dodson would miss the remainder of the season due to injury, Coach Charley Parker didn’t have much time to adjust his game plan for the #8 ranked team in Class 5, the West Plains Lady Zizzers.

The Lady Bulldogs battled in the contest but the middle two quarters proved to the difference as they were outscored 16-44 enroute to a 48-82 defeat at the hands of the hot-shooting Lady Zizzers.

New Look

Talking with Coach Parker, he said they will have to establish “a new identity trying to figure out how to play without our all state guard will be an adjustment for us.” He then noted that by losing Dodson we only have one upper classman on the roster and that is 5’8”Sr All-District guard Mariah Watkins."We were already young but just got younger.”

With a starting line-up of Watkins, a sophomore in 5’10” forward Madison Hutton, and two 5’10” freshmen in guard Bella Campbell and forward Rylee Anderson, you now introduced another freshman in 5’7” guard Addy Deremo.

Deremo started 2 games in the Holiday tournament when Hutton was dealing with illness. The bench is entirely made up of sophomore and freshmen players who split time on JV in an effort to rapidly gain experience playing at the high school level.

The Zizzer Lightning Strike

West Plains started the game knocking down some 3 point shots, which appeared to be a left-over from the JV game as well as a harbinger of what to expect later on. The Lady Bulldogs survived the initial first quarter onslaught to battle back with their own 3 point buckets by Watkins and Deremo. Lady Bulldogs trailed 12-15 at the end of the first. “I thought we came out in the first quarter and did a good job controlling the tempo getting the ball where we wanted it to be,” said Parker.

The next two quarter put the game out reach for the Lady Bulldogs as they struggled to take care of the ball and the offense became stagnant without Dodson on the court. “Second quarter we got a little loose, 5 of our 9 turnovers came in the second quarter allowing them to make a 15-0 run” “We did a better job closing the distance getting it back to 10 before a three at the buzzer putting them up 13”

In the 4th quarter, the Lady Bulldogs seemed to find their confidence and swagger as they adjusted to the physical play of the West Plains defenders and started to attack the basket with more confidence. “West plains shot the ball really well going 14-26 from three,” pointed out Parker, which opens up their offense and forces our defense to scramble. Watkins responded with 11 points in the final quarter to finish with a game high 20 points.

The Wrap Up

In previous conversations, we spoke with Coach Parker about the importance of improving the schedule to provide growth opportunities for his young team and as he pointed out, they are now even younger. But with every challenge, there is also opportunity. “We will continue to learn, continue to improve. Basketball is a game of runs and we have got to find ways to stop runs and create our own.”

The Lady Bulldogs have an opportunity to grow as individual players, as a team, and more importantly as leaders as they face this adversity. This is still a talented team that once they find and establish their new identity, will compete and be ready for the district run.

Next Up

Monday January 19th at Republic (9-3)

PPG: Rolla 60.7, Republic 54.2
Pts Allowed: Rolla 54.7, Republic 43.4
Head to Head Match-Ups
- Jefferson City: Rolla Win (81 - 68) , Republic - Win (76 - 56)
- Nixa: Rolla - Win (66 - 65), Republic - Win (60 - 43)
- West Plains: Rolla Loss (49 - 82), Republic - Win (50 - 46)

STATS Rolla 49, West Plains 82

The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

Rolla (9-5): Hutton 0-5-5, Watkins 8-1-20, Fontenot 1-0-2, Northup 2-0-4, Deremo 1-0-3, Campbell 4-2-11, Wilson 1-0-2, Anderson 0-2-2

West Plains (11-4): Hafer 2-0-6, Scharnhorst, 2-2-7. Willard 2-0-4, Brill 1-0-2, McWilliams 6-1-18, Peterson, 7-0-18, Wahome 4-1-9, Schrubb 3-0-7, G Green 5-0-11

The score by periods:

TEAM Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 F

Rolla 12 9 7 21 49

West Plains 15 19 25 23 82

Lady Bulldogs JV Survives the Long Range Attack of the Zizzers to Move to 12-0

It was an exciting ball game to open up the night as the Lady Bulldogs, after surviving a slow first quarter where they trailed 5-11, seemed ready to blow the game wide open as they enter the 3rd quarter with a 43-33 lead. But the Zizzers had other plans.

The JV Lady Zizzers hit 7 3’s in the 4th quarter and 14 for the game, to battle back and take the lead, 56-58, with under a minute to play. It was 2 clutch free throws by 5’9” So guard Zoey Northup, who scored all 8 of her points in the 4th quarter, to tie the ball game with under 30 seconds to play.

After a Zizzer turnover 5’10” So forward Riley Hollis was fouled and made the bucket to bring the home town crowd to their feet, giving the Lady Bulldogs a 60-58 lead. After the missed free throw the Zizzers were poised to tie the game or use their long range attack to get the win. Back to back defensive plays for the Lady Bulldogs proved to be the winner.

A tie up forced a jump ball with 2.3 seconds left and had West Plains inbounding under their own basket. They were able to get the ball to their post player at the block and the smallest player on the court made the biggest play as 5’4” So point guard Shine Martia made a clean block to guarantee the Lady Bulldogs unbeaten record remained.

Martia and Hollis led the Lady Bulldogs in scoring with 15 points apiece.