Lady Blackcats and Hunters to play for fifth

By Kevin Jenkins | February 15, 2014 |

PARK HILLS — Friday night’s MAAA Tournament started out with the girls fifth-place semi-finals taking the floor at Mineral Area College’s Bob Sechrest, Sr. Fieldhouse.

The No. 9 seed Fredericktown Lady Blackcats pulled off a major upset of the No. 5 seed Farmington Knightettes in the opening game, and the no. 7 seed Ste. Genevieve Hunters moved up a notch by defeating the No. 6 seed West County Lady Bulldogs in the second game. The two winners will play each other in the fifth-place game today at 1 p.m.

Fredericktown 55, Farmington 41

Anna Beth Phillips was in full form to start the contest as she pumped out four threes to spearhead a 10-point lead for the Fredericktown Lady Blackcats in the first quarter which they would maintain for an eventual 55-41 win.

The win was huge for the Lady Blackcats after having gone 0-5 in the conference’s regular season, including a 61-39 loss to the Knightettes.

Farmington’s defense, which cut down on Phillip’s outside shooting the rest of the way, held the Lady Blackcats to only two field goals as they began to mount a comeback from the first quarter’s drubbing.

In the second quarter, Farmington limited the Lady Blackcats to only two field goals by their center Abby Clark on putbacks, but Fredericktown went to the line 12 times to score six more points in the quarter.

Farmington’s Ellaina Davis scored seven of her 11 points with three of the Knightette’s five field goals in the second quarter as Farmington pulled to within five at the intermission, 30-25.

Fredericktown opened the third quarter with a stifling press, forcing Farmington to turn the ball over on six straight possessions, and the Lady Blackcats pushed back out to a 12-point margin, 38-26, before two and a half minutes had passed.

With Phillips being tamed down by the Knightettes’ defense, Fredericktown’s Paige Godsey stepped up to score 12 of her game’s 17 points in the second half to share scoring honors with Phillips, and Clark scored her last basket for a 12-point game.

Loralee Bader polished off her team-high 12 points with two baskets in the final frame.

Ste. Genevieve 50, West County 34

The Ste. Genevieve Hunters avenged an overtime loss earlier in the season to the West County Lady Bulldogs as their defense shut down the Lady Bulldogs outside shooting in he second half to pull off a 50-34 win.

Hannah Hollock made good on two threes in the first half, but the Lady Bulldogs could not find another in their arsenal. Ste. Genevieve trailed by two at the break, but Monica Inman tied the game with the first basket of the third quarter which also started an 8-2 run for the Hunters as they pulled away.

West County was unable to answer as they could only muster three field goals in each of the two last quarters.

Katie Palmer scored three baskets in both quarters to end up with the high game of 20 points. Inman was not far behind with 15.

Fredericktown’s Paige Godsey (5) races the perimeter as Farmington’s Brittany Redmond (22) gives chase.

After pulling down a rebound, Abby Clark prepares to go up with a shot for Fredericktown over Farmington’s Briley Brackett (24) and Emilee Sheets (35)