The seeds and pairings have been released for the Class 5 District 12 girls basketball tournament.
Top-seeded Carl Junction will host fourth-seeded Harrisonville at 7 on March 1 in a semifinal contest.
Second-seeded Nevada will host third-seeded Webb City at 7 on March 1.
The championship game is scheduled for 7 on March 4 at a location to be determined.
The bracket for the District 12 boys tournament is not yet available.
Coming off of two consecutive losses, McAuley girls basketball coach Mike Howard wanted to see his Warriors start fast against Thomas Jefferson on Thursday.
He got his wish.
McAuley scored the game’s first 15 points, riding the early momentum swing to a 63-28 win over the Cavaliers.
“I thought we played really well considering we haven’t had practice in two weeks,” Howard said. “For us to come out and play aggressive from the get-go … that says a lot about our character and work ethic.”
“Give a lot of credit to McAuley,” Thomas Jefferson coach Dan Rogers said. “They are well polished and are trying to get their rhythm going into districts as the No. 1 seed. They’re a good team and well coached. … We are getting better, and I think we are going to be scary in districts.”
SENIOR NIGHT
Thomas Jefferson honored three seniors in the matchup with the Warriors—Sydney Stamps, Sonia Carlson and Kayley Ball.
“Sydney Stamps and Sonia were here all four years, but Sonia didn’t get to play after the first couple of games because of a heart murmur,” Rogers said. “Sydney gives her best all the time. She is a great kid and we are going to miss her a lot. We are going to miss all of our seniors. Kayley Ball did a great job tonight. This is her first year with us, and she is very loyal and works hard. This is a great bunch of seniors.”
GAME ACTION
The Warriors opened the game with a hot start from the perimeter. Kennedy DeRuy drilled back-to-back 3-pointers from the corner to open the contest before a Lily Black inside score was followed up with a corner 3-ball from Kayleigh Teeter to push the lead to 11-0 through the first three minutes of action.
“It was very important,” Howard said of his team’s perimeter shooting early helping to open up the offense. “I knew coming into it that TJ was going to run a 1-3-1, and they run it pretty well. We had to take advantage of their weak spots, putting our shooters in a place to be successful. I thought we did a good job of moving the ball around and getting it to our shooters to get open looks.”
Teeter added a fast-break layup off a turnover before DeRuy scored on a give-and-go cut through the lane to close the 15-0 run. DeRuy finished with eight of the Warriors’ first 15 points.
“It was huge because she has been struggling the last few games,” Howard said of DeRuy’s start. “She really came out focused tonight. Over the break, she had been going and getting a lot of shots in to get her confidence up. You could tell tonight that she has been putting in the work.”
Alivia Beard got Thomas Jefferson on the scoreboard with a free throw at the 4:02 mark. McAuley led 21-5 by the end of the first period of play.
Thomas Jefferson found life offensively in the second quarter, equaling McAuley on the scoreboard 10-10 in the second period to keep the lead at 16 by the intermission, 31-15. Beard and Sarah Mueller each knocked down shots from the perimeter, while Stamps finished with four points in the quarter.
“We made better passes for each other,” Rogers said about his team’s offense in the second period. “We had a lot of bad turnovers (early), self-inflicted turnovers, but I thought we passed the ball better and made some adjustments. We have to handle the ball a lot better.”
McAuley pushed the lead to more than 20 points early in the second half with a 7-2 spurt to start the third quarter, pushing the game out of reach. Teeter knocked down a triple from the corner to start the scoring off before Stamps answered inside on the other end for the Cavaliers. DeRuy grabbed an offensive board for a putback basket, and Teeter added a runout on the break to make the score 38-17 with 4:20 left in the period.
SCORING LEADERS
Teeter finished with a game-high 26 points to lead McAuley, while DeRuy closed right behind with 23 points. Kloee Williamson added six.
Beard led Thomas Jefferson with 17 points, while Stamps closed out the contest with nine.
DISTRICT UPDATE
McAuley earned the top seed in the Class 1 District 7 tournament, and the Warriors will play the winner of No. 4 Rich hill and No. 5 Northeast Vernon County at 6 p.m. on Feb. 24.
Thomas Jefferson is the No. 7 seed and will travel to take on No. 2 Hume on Feb. 22.
Ninth-ranked Thomas Jefferson sent its seniors out on a high note after jumping out to a sizable cushion early and holding on for a 50-43 Ozark 7 win over McAuley on Thursday.
“We are excited to even be able to play on Senior Night,” Thomas Jefferson coach Chris Myers said. “Being able to get back in the gym and come away with a victory, it’s always a special night.”
Thomas Jefferson closed the first quarter on a spurt to build a nine-point lead after the first eight minutes. The Cavaliers stretched the advantage to 30-15 by the intermission before pushing the lead to as much as 19 points early in the second half. McAuley didn’t go down without a fight, cutting the lead to single digits several times in the fourth quarter, only to see Thomas Jefferson respond each time to finish off the win.
“There was no quit in them tonight,” McAuley coach Tony Witt said. “It is a conference game, it’s TJ. I think the first part of the first half showed a little rustiness. But, I was very proud of our guys for hanging in there and battling.”
SENIOR NIGHT
Thomas Jefferson honored three seniors on Thursday—Dhruv Gheewala, Noah Hamlett and Kelsey Attaberry.
“They’ve all contributed different things to the program,” Myers said. “Dhruv has been a primary scorer and the face of the team a lot over the last four years. Noah Hamlett, who played his freshman year and didn’t play for a couple of years, recommitted and came back out this year. He has been huge for us as our sixth man. … Kelsey Attaberry is a workhorse. He has a tough role on the team. He is not a scorer primarily, but he comes out and does all those little things night in and night out for us … doing a lot of the things kids don’t want to do.”
GAME ACTION
Thomas Jefferson held a 7-6 lead over McAuley through the midway point of the first period before the Cavaliers finished the quarter on a 10-2 surge to take a 17-8 lead.
With the lead at seven points three minutes into the second period, Gheewala knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner before Jay Ball scored down low on an inbounds pass. Gheewala added a driving score to cap the 7-0 spurt to give Thomas Jefferson a 27-13 lead and the momentum into halftime.
Drew Goodhope sank a 3-ball out of the break to help build the Thomas Jefferson lead to 19 points, 34-15, but the Warriors responded with a 7-0 run — highlighted by scores from Thomas Black, Daniel Wagner and Jeff Horinek — to trim the margin to 36-24.
“They were challenged, and they rose to the challenge,” Witt said of his team’s ability to keep fighting back down the stretch. “We’ve been in that situation, unfortunately, a lot this year. They knew what they had to do to dig themselves out, and they did. And they did it with their defense.”
The Cavaliers held a 41-26 advantage shortly after the start of the fourth, but McAuley again made a run with the next six points to get within single digits of the lead, 41-32, with 5:11 to play. Black earned a steal for a score on the break to close the run.
Thomas Jefferson pushed the lead back to double digits after a pair of free throws from Gheewala was followed by 3-pointers from Goodhope and Caden Myers to make the score 49-34 with less than three minutes to play.
“In that aspect, we were happy with the kids,” Coach Myers said of his team’s ability to limit McAuley’s late-game push. “I thought we played with great energy early and had a good lead at halftime. I thought fatigue got the best of us there (late). … I was proud of the kids. They fought through it and found a way to not let them creep any closer. They did what they had to do down the stretch to get out of here with a W.”
Black grabbed consecutive offensive boards for putback scores before Matthew Dohmen, who scored eight of his 10 points in the second half — scored on the drive to once again trim the lead to single digits, 49-40.
However, with just 82 seconds remaining, the Warriors didn’t have enough time to make a serious run at the win.
SCORING LEADERS
Gheewala finished with a game-high 15 points to lead the Cavaliers. Goodhope added 13 points, while Ball finished with 10. Caden Myers scored nine.
Black and Dohmen led McAuley with 10 points each, while Wagner finished with eight. Horinek added six.
DISTRICT UPDATE
Thomas Jefferson holds the top seed for the Class 1 District 7 tournament, with McAuley earning the second seed.
Thomas Jefferson will play the winner of No. 4 Rich Hill and No. 5 Bronaugh at 6 p.m. on Feb. 23. No. 2 McAuley hosts No. 7 Northeast Vernon County at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Carl Junction, Webb City and Carthage will be among the teams competing at this weekend’s Missouri Girls Swimming and Diving Championships at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
The Class 2 event is Friday, while the Class 1 event is Saturday. The swimming events are scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. each day.
In a change due to the pandemic, only 24 athletes qualified in each event this winter.
In previous years, the top 32 swimmers in each event qualified for state.
A one-day meet is also a change from the past, as each class previously competed over two days, with prelims one day and finals the next.
As was the case during the boys fall season, each meet has been reduced to a one-day affair with timed finals only, and no spectators are allowed.
The back-to-back Central Ozark Conference champion Carl Junction Bulldogs will have eight athletes competing at the Class 1 meet.
Representing the Bulldogs at state will be seniors Sophia Hensley and Emma Lacey, juniors Alanza Montez and Carsyn Smith, sophomores Madeleine Garoutte and Skyler Sundy and freshmen Chloe Miller and Abigail Wilson.
“The girls are so excited,” Carl Junction coach Stephanie Miller told Fox Sports Joplin’s Rob Forest during a radio interview on Thursday. “I’m just really excited because we’re a team. We’re going to miss our two seniors of course, but the future looks good.”
The Bulldogs are the top seed in the 200-yard medley relay with their time of 1:51 and Carl Junction is seeded second in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:41.92, which is not far behind Parkway West (1:40.29).
Carl Junction is seeded 10th in the 400 free relay.
“The relays are going to be amazing,” Miller said. “I think we can finish in the top-eight in all three of them.”
As far as individual events, Chloe Miller is seeded fourth in the 50 freestyle, while Lacey is seeded fifth in the 100 breaststroke and Sundy is the sixth seed in the 100 backstroke.
“Those three are really looking good for top eight,” Miller said. “We’re looking forward to everyone scoring points.”
Wilson is seeded 16th in the breaststroke, while Smith is seeded 21st in the backstroke.
The Cardinals have seven athletes heading to state.
Representing Webb City will be juniors Ella Holt and Makenzie Storm, sophomores Olivia Honey, Hally Philpot, Skylar Powell and Sophia Whitesell and freshman Avery Mitchell.
Webb City’s 400 freestyle relay team is seeded 19th and the team’s 200 free relay is seeded 24th.
Whitesell is seeded 14th in the 200 individual medley and 17th in the 500 freestyle, while Powell is seeded 19th in the 50 free.
Lamar, Nevada and Monett also have athletes competing in Class 1.
Lamar will be represented by seniors Meghan Watson and Kaitlyn Davis, while junior diver Laura Kimmell is Nevada’s lone qualifier.
Big 8 Conference champion Monett will be represented by seniors Faith Drewianka and Ashton Prine, juniors Abby Apostal and Gwen Lesue, sophomore Claire Nation and freshmen Ava Fritts and Emma Hunter.
Carthage has six athletes qualified for Friday’s Class 2 event.
Representing Carthage will be senior Nadya Housh, juniors Hope Fultz and Cassidy Smith, sophomore Madison Riley and freshmen Ava Lacey and Aubree Santillan.
The Tigers are seeded 19th in the 200-yard freestyle relay and 23rd in the 400 freestyle relay.
Riley is seeded 11th in the 100 butterfly and 24th in the 100 backstroke, while Santillan is seeded 20th in the backstroke.
The Tigers, who finished second at the COC meet on Jan. 26, are the lone area squad competing in Class 2.
2021 Girls Swimming & Diving Championship Information Central (mshsaa.org)
Experienced sports journalists providing great local sports coverage in Southwest Missouri.