The Lancers began the Jefferson County Activities Association small-schools girls basketball game on Jan. 10 by missing their first nine shots from the field and Jefferson outscored their hosts 11-2 in the first quarter. But St. Pius whittled away at that lead with a 7-0 spurt to end the third.
Up by a point, the Blue Jays needed a signature moment to close out the win. They got it from their leading scorer, sophomore Laney Smith, who grabbed her own offensive rebound after missing from downtown, dribbled around the 3-point arc and drove right through the paint to score, giving Jefferson a 36-33 edge with 1:23 remaining.
Senior guard Jenna Courtois stole the ball from a St. Pius player and scored to give the Blue Jays a five-point lead. They held on to win 41-35.
“We came in knowing if we played with our intensity level defensively and offensively, we should win,” Jefferson head coach Brandon Joines said. “St. Pius has clearly gotten better since the beginning of the season. They cleaned up a lot of stuff and that’s because of coaching and their girls’ dedication.”
Smith leads the Blue Jays with 11.5 points per game, but the Lancers held her to eight points on a 3-for-13 shooting night.
“Laney’s play is fight,” Joines said. “Did she want to go for that board based on her look? No, but she attacked and did so without hesitation. When our girls are thinking, ‘This needs to be done and I’m going to do it,’ we’re tough to beat.”
Since Dec. 27, Jefferson (10-6) is 5-1. Smith notched 30 points in the Blue Jays’ 54-37 victory at Fredericktown on Jan. 7. St. Pius fell to 6-7.
“We allowed that run (to St. Pius) at the end of the third quarter and into the fourth, and things got chippy for awhile, but we bounced back,” Joines said. “That’s something we lacked but we’re starting to fight through that. Against Fredericktown, they made a run, but we settled down and pushed the lead back to 17 (points). The girls are learning and these wins build character.”
Courtois didn’t hesitate to drive right through the interior of the St. Pius defense and she scored a team-high 14 points. With Courtois and junior guard Abi Chipps driving the offense at a high rate of speed, it was hard for the Lancers to get set and stop them.
“Courtois is probably the fastest guard in the conference,” St. Pius head coach Aaron Portell said. “When she puts her head down and goes, we try to keep her out of the middle. She was able to do what she wanted.”
A three-time all-state softball player and the top girls 100-meter sprinter at Jefferson, Chipps can outrun most players on the hardwood, even while dribbling. Many of her attacks against the Lancers ended up with her standing at the free-throw line, where she sank all eight shots. Six of those foul shots were in the fourth quarter.
“She stepped up and made some huge shots,” Joines said. “She’s got big moments. She has big softball moments all of the time. Her basketball moments are hit-and-miss. People look at height and misjudge her. Is she going to get some shots blocked? Yes, but you’re not going to stop her motor. She knows one thing – she goes.”
Junior forward Angeleena Johnson scored six of her team-leading 13 points in the fourth. Johnson and Agers are jockeying to lead the team in scoring this season. Agers scored eight points and tangled with Courtois for a rebound with nine seconds to play. Both were called for a technical foul. Portell said the play was just two girls competing until the end.
He said he was more concerned with how the Lancers began the game on their home floor.
“I don’t think we were focused,” Portell said. “We were getting the looks that we wanted, three feet from the basket. We just couldn’t finish. We shot the ball off balance. We have to be able to get those points if we’re going to win games.”
Eagles lead JCAA smalls
The Grandview girls are 3-0 in 2019 and at 2-0 in the JCAA small-schools division are the early conference leader with wins over St. Pius X and Herculaneum.
On Jan. 10, the Eagles traveled to Perryville and toppled St. Vincent 47-25. Junior center Hailey Harlow capped a three-game 50-point performance with a team-high 20 points for the Eagles (8-6) against the Indians. Harlow moved her season scoring average above 11 points with the scoring surge.
Junior guard Sarra Faust led the Eagles with 24 points against the Lancers and notched 18 more in a 55-24 thrashing of Valley Park on Jan. 7. Faust pulled down eight rebounds and had six steals against St. Vincent.
Grandview hosts Crystal City (5-9) tonight (Thursday) in the Hornets’ conference opener.
Crystal City senior tops 1,000 career points
Senior guard Kailey Krieg surpassed 1,000 points in her four-year varsity career when she led the Hornets with 17 in a 42-35 win at Kingston on Jan. 8.
Krieg is averaging 15.7 points per game this season and has been the team’s leading 3-point shooter the last three years.
“Kailey set her sights on this goal a long time ago, and puts in the work to accomplish it,” Crystal City head coach Ken Jones said. “It was a special moment for the whole team. I also would like to point out how gracious Kingston was in helping recognize this accomplishment.”
Krieg’s humble response to the achievement was to dish out credit to her teammates and coaches.
“I like to think I’m hard-working. But (Crystal City’s coaches) coached me to be the best I could be,” she said. “I do like shooting the 3, but I try to work on my other shots, like my pull-up jumper.
“I’ve developed quite a bit. As a freshman, I didn’t shoot that well. So I worked hard to shoot beyond the arc.”
Over the span of four years, Krieg said her favorite moment was making a layup to reach 1,000 points.
“It felt like everything was in slow motion,” Krieg said. “I didn’t think it was possible until my junior year.”
Large-school action underway
All five girls basketball teams in the JCAA’s large-school division – De Soto, Festus, Hillsboro, Perryville and Windsor – have played at least one conference game, with the Tigers and Pirates each at 1-0.
Festus (11-3) tipped off its league schedule and won for the fourth straight time with a 57-20 win at Hillsboro (2-12, 0-1) on Jan. 8. The Tigers have outscored their opponents 62-32 during their win streak.
After being outscored by Festus 44-10 in the first half, the Hawks rallied to win the third quarter 9-7, but the Tigers held them to just a point in the fourth. Senior Jenna Oetting led the Tigers with 17 points. Guard Abby Rickermann chipped in with 10 points for Festus, while teammate, center Abby McMillin, made 4 of 5 shots from the field and scored eight points. Sophomore Mackenzie Baker led the Hawks with eight points.
Dragons clip Owls’ wings
Before the snow started flying in Jefferson County on Friday, De Soto (9-6 overall) hosted Windsor in a conference tilt and buried the Owls 49-27 to even its league mark at 1-1.
Windsor couldn’t get many second shots because Dragons center Kendall Boyer snared 13 of her 20 rebounds at the defensive end. Boyer, one of the St. Louis area’s leading scorers this season with 18.1 points per game, led the charge offensively against Windsor with 15 points.
De Soto senior guard Kaitlyn McGinnitey had 10 points and four assists against the Owls, who fell to 5-8 and 0-1.