SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Grant Berendt will always remember this year’s Mount Vernon girls basketball team for its resiliency.
Displaying grit and determination until the final horn, Mount Vernon trimmed a 22-point deficit all the way down to four with under two minutes to play.
But the late comeback fell short, as the big deficit was too much to overcome for the Mountaineers in a 58-52 loss to Boonville in the championship game of the MSHSAA Class 4 state tournament on Saturday at JQH Arena.
“You can’t measure heart and fight in kids,” Berendt said when asked about his team’s late comeback. “I never felt out of it. I felt we ran out of time. For all of our kids to step up and play huge minutes, and do different things, it was special. This is a special group.”
In a state title game for the first time since 2012, Mount Vernon concludes a stellar season with a record of 28-4. The Mountaineers had won 15 straight games ahead of Saturday’s title game appearance.
“Two years ago, when we lost some great seniors, there probably weren’t a lot of people who thought we’d get to .500 the next year,” Berendt said. “We had two juniors, two sophomores and 11 freshmen. And we ended up with 23 wins. Carrying that over to this year, and bringing back everybody, there was so much excitement. We knew we had the opportunity to maybe go do something special. Things started to align for us.”
The Pirates led 43-21 with 4:39 left in the third period, but the Mountaineers didn’t quit. Instead, they used a spirited 26-8 surge to pull within four with 1:40 remaining. But the Pirates would never relinquish their lead.
Mount Vernon standout senior guard Lacy Stokes noted her team left it all on the court.
“I’m going to remember these girls so much for all the heart they had,” Stokes said. “All of my teammates gave their heart for this sport and I couldn’t ask anything more of them.”
NAMES & NUMBERS
Senior guard Ellie Johnston scored a game-high 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting. She made four 3-pointers and also grabbed eight rebounds.
Stokes added 14 points, seven assists, five boards and three steals.
Juniors Raegan Boswell and Cameryn Cassity contributed eight points apiece, while sophomore Kadence Krempges rounded out the scoring with one point. Boswell had a team-high nine rebounds.
The Mountaineers made 18-of-46 field goal attempts (39 percent) and went 9-for-14 at the foul line.
Addison Brownfield scored 19 points for Boonville (27-2), while Kourtney Kendrick had 17 and Jodie Bass added 11. The Pirates shot 41 percent for the game (16-of-39) and made 18-of-24 free throws.
It’s Boonville’s first state championship in girls basketball.
GAME RECAP
Mount Vernon led 6-3 after treys from Johnston and Stokes, but the Pirates scored eight straight points to go up 11-6. Cassity’s hoop in the paint cut Mount Vernon’s deficit to three at the end of the first quarter.
The hot-shooting Pirates hit four treys in the second period and used a 15-3 run to pull away at 33-16.
Johnston knocked down a much-needed 3-pointer, but the Mountaineers trailed 33-19 at the break.
“The difference was their ability to make baskets and our inability to,” Berendt said of the first half. “They shot the lights out. They had kids step up and make shots.”
“We were kind of discombobulated on the offensive end and that falls on me,” Berendt added. “I didn’t get us in the right alignments and we just started chucking it up. And if you do that against a team that’s hot, you get down 22 real quick…and that’s what happened.”
The Pirates extended their advantage to 22 at 43-21.
Boonville led 45-24 when Mount Vernon started to shift the momentum. The Mountaineers scored the final eight points of the third quarter, trimming their deficit to 45-32 entering the final frame.
While the Pirates went cold from the field, Cassity, Boswell, Johnston and Stokes all contributed points during Mount Vernon’s fourth quarter rally, and a Krempges free throw cut her team’s deficit to 51-47 with 1:40 remaining.
Boonville’s Kendrick made one attempt at the charity stripe and the Mountaineers had an empty possession before Brownfield hit two free throws.
Cassity’s hoop inside pulled the Mountaineers within five with 45 seconds left before the teams traded turnovers. Brownfield hit two more free throws at the 13-second mark before Johnston’s 3-pointer once again cut Mount Vernon’s deficit to four. But there were only eight seconds left.
Brownfield drew a foul and made two charities for the final margin. Overall, the Pirates made their final seven free throw attempts.
A TALE OF TWO HALVES
The Mountaineers were limited to 19 points in the first half, but they erupted for 33 after the break, including 20 in the fourth quarter.
Mount Vernon made just 7-of-20 field goal attempts in the first half (35 percent), while Boonville hit 12-of-26 shots (46 percent).
The Mountaineers turned the ball over nine times in the opening half against Boonville’s aggressive pressure defense, while the Pirates had just four turnovers.
But it was a different story after intermission.
The Pirates hit only 4-of-13 field goal attempts in the second half, while the Mountaineers made 11-of-26. Boonville had nine turnovers in the second half, while Mount Vernon had only five.
“We’ve always been a second half team,” said Stokes, who will play collegiately at Missouri Southern. “We dug ourselves a hole, but we have a lot of heart and a lot of fight. We tried to do what we needed to, but a lot of things just didn’t fall for us tonight like they usually do. It just wasn’t our night.”
FULL STATS: MSHSAA 2020-2021 Class 4 Girls Basketball State Tournament Matchup: Mt. Vernon vs. Boonville
