Central Tournament: Top seeds run away with girls' first round

By DONN ADAMSON\Daily Journal Sports Editor

PARK HILLS - The girls' bracket of the 19th Annual Bob Sechrest, Jr. Central Christmas Tournament for the most part panned out as expected. As in most tournaments the top seeds ran rough-shod over the lower seeds setting up some very good games for both sides of the bracket for the second round.

The first game of the opening day pitted the No. 1 seed Fredericktown Lady Cats against the No. 8 seeds Central Lady Rebels, and the seeds proved to be correct as the Lady Cats dominated with a 57-34 win.

The end of the game was determined from the very start as Fredericktown controlled the tip and then controlled everything else in the game. On defense the Lady Cats forced nine turnovers by the Lady Rebels in the first quarter. On offense they hit from outside and whatever did not go in, they scarfed up the rebound for the putback.

Betsy Royer and Courtney Kemp both hit a three, and Kylie Boswell hit three baskets from inside in the first quarter. Royer started the second quarter scoring with an offensive rebound, a putback and added a free throw on the play. Boswell would hit three more baskets in the second quarter to lead the Lady Cats in scoring 39 points as a team in the first half.

Central's woes came from their shooting the basketball. The Lady Rebels only made two baskets from the floor in each of the first two quarters. Jessica Moyer had half of them with a basket in each quarter. The Lady Rebels scored only 10 points in the first half of play.

Fredericktown's press which gave the Lady Rebels fits in the first half was pulled off in the third quarter. Coach Lonny Sheldon sent in his second wave of players at the four minute mark with the score 47-16. Boswell had already finished her game-high scoring at 16. Royer added another two in the third, but came bak in at the start of the fourth to hit her second three-pointer.

With the help of a three-pointer by Kristina Holloway and one by Tausha Petty, the Lady Rebels were able to outscore the Lady Cats in the second half of play, but it was too little, too late.

Scoring was shared by players on both teams with the Lady Cats having 11 players in the scoring column, and Central having nine (See box scores below).

In game two of the girls bracket, the No. 5 seed South Iron Lady Panthers were able to pull away in the second half to defeat the No. 4 seed Herculaneum Lady Blackcats 48-39 for the minor upset. South Iron led by only two points at the half, 19-17.

The Lady Panthers were led in scoring by Savannah Middleton with 17 points and by Whitney Casteel with 12 points. Herculaneum's top scorer was Edie Farmer with 15 points.

Game three saw the No. 3 seed and last year's tournament winner, St. James, roll right over the No. 6 seed Arcadia Valley Lady Tigers with a score of 77-31. St. James racked up 50 points in the first half, but even more impressive was their limiting Arcadia Valley to 13 points at the same time.

St. James showed they were quicker, taller, stronger and could shoot better than lower-seeded Arcadia Valley. Jennifer Bowen scored 14 points in the first quarter and would finish with 27 on the night for St. James.

Arcadia Valley could only salvage some pride in their three-point shooting. The lady Tigers hit three in the second quarter and three more inthe fourth quarter, but for the most part were silent on offense.

At one junction in the third quarter, St. James scored six points within 10 seconds with two steals and quick baskets on Arcadia Valley's inbounding the ball after at St. James basket.

St. James press and high defense kept the ball on their end of the floor for most of the first three quarters, but when Arcadia Valley did manage to form some type of offensive attack, they were thwarted by being allowed only one shot by St. James aggressive rebounding.

The aggressive rebounding was more apparent by St. James offense. Time and time again, when the outside shot failed for St. James, their post players brought down the ball only to put it right back up for two points.

The last of the first round of girls' games pitted the No. 2 Potosi Lady Trojans against the No. 7 Bismarck Lady Indians, and it too came out as seeded with the Lady Trojans prevailing by a score of 65-47.

The game opened up with Potosi scoring and Bismarck not. Even though both teams had their share of turnovers in the first quarter of play, the Lady Trojans were able to pull down nearly every rebound on both ends of the floor and with their press were able to get off a lot more shots than the Lady Indians.

Potosi's Ashley Mims found her range early from the three point line hitting four out of seven tries in the first half. Potosi's 6'0" center, Lora Dickey pulled down nine boards to keep the Lady Trojans on the attack, while Tiffany Owens drove the lane for four baskets to help the Lady Trojans to a 40-13 lead at the half.

Potosi' press pulled back in the third quarter, and Bismarck, led by Chelsey Politte, was able to actually outscore the Lady Trojans in the last half of play. Politte scored 18 of her 24 points in the second half. Potosi, however, had four players in double figures, and Dickey had 14 rebounds in the game.

The day's end set up consolation semi-finals on Tuesday between Central and Herculaneum at 10 a.m., and one between Arcadia Valley and Bismarck at 11:30 a.m. Fredericktown will play South Iron on Wednesday at 1 p.m., and St. James will play Potosi at 2:30 p.m. in the semi-final games.

Fredericktown 57, Central 34

SCORING:

Fredericktown - K Boswell 16, B Royer 11, A Hendrix 8, C Kemp 5, D Hughes 4, J Tinnin 3, M Matthews 2, M Bess 2, J Whitener 2, D Beckham 2, M Johnson 2.

3-Pointers - B Royer 2, C Kemp 1, A Hendrix 1.

Central - J Moyer 10, T Petty 5, J Lawson 4, A Douglas 4, K Holloway 3, K Gunder 3, K Hammers 2, K Usher 2, C Pinson 1.

3-Pointers - K Holloway 1, T Petty 1.

St. James 77, Arcadia Valley 31

Scoring:

St. James - J Bowen 27, W Meurer 16, L Bookout 11, A Caudill 8, M Schmitt 5, K Marshall 4, W Macormic 4, M LIlly 2.

3-Pointers - W Meurer 3, J Bowen 1, M Schmitt 1.

Arcadia Valley - K Walker 10, M Reichert 8, D Williams 4, A Thurman 4, B Bennett 3, T Franklin 2.

3-pointers - M Reichert 2, K Walker 2, B Bennett 1, A Thurman 1.

Potosi 65, Bismarck 47

Scoring:

Potosi - A Mims 19, L Dickey 13, T Owens 11, J McGirl 11, L Stewart 7, B Chazelle 2, C Allen 2.

3-Pointers - A Mims 5.

Bismarck - C Politte 24, K Faulkner 9, L McCaulla 6, C Morris 5, L Kneiss 3.