With the exception of the Festus girls basketball team, hoops season came to an abrupt end, like that thief in the night known as daylight savings cost us all an hour of sleep and forced us to set our clocks forward Sunday.
The Tigers play Lift for Life Academy Charter in the Class 5 quarterfinals Friday in Cape Girardeau, but the rest of the teams that compete independently (St. Pius X), in the Jefferson County Activities Association (large- and small-schools) and swim in the many pools in the Suburban Conference, were all eliminated in districts.
The Festus boys played Sikeston in the Class 5 District 1 championship on March 7, but the Bulldogs chomped down on Tiger ballhandlers, causing havoc, creating turnovers and scoring at will because of them. Sikeston was a point away from the final four last year. The district final was at Cape Girardeau Central High, much closer for Bulldog fans. Neutral sites are used for the state quarterfinal round. Sikeston and Cape are in the same conference, so the Bulldogs play there every year.
Festus fans will miss do-everything Drew Johnson, Jackson Smith’s size and blossoming offensive talent and bench spark plug Aiden Clifton (2026 graduates) next season, but center Nate Womack, point guard Cooper Schilly, guard Carter Rush and 6-1 small forward Braydon Wilkes give head coach Dan Johnson the tools necessary to compete for conference and district titles again.
The three other JCAA large-schools boys teams were bounced in the first round of districts, including champion Windsor (7-1, 16-11). The Owls were seeded sixth in District 2 at Rockwood Summit, and ran into a buzz saw in the first round against Westminster Christian Academy (3). The Wildcats throttled the typically high-flying Windsor offense to not only a season, but a decade-low 28 points, in an 82-28 rout. Westminster lost by 13 points in the semifinals to Vianney (2), which won the district title by knocking off the defending state champions and top seed from Webster Groves. Hopefully, that provides you with a better understanding of what Windsor was up against.
The Owls were averaging 60 points per game. Graduation losses will cut deep for Windsor this spring, taking point guard Ethan Shirk, shooting guard Owen Haegele and center Xander Smith. But small forward Colby Blake and shooting guard Sam Becker return.
De Soto (5-22, 1-7) and Hillsboro (13-14, 5-3) were both ejected in the first round in District 1. Sikeston ended the Dragons’ season with an 83-36 victory. Despite four players scoring in double figures (Cooper McGrath, Brendan Poyner, Colton Hicks and Tyson Sutton), the Hawks (4 seed) allowed 22 points in the fourth quarter to West Plains (5) and lost 66-57. Both seniors, McGrath and Poyner each averaged over 15 points per game.
In Class 6, the Fox, Northwest and Seckman boys teams lost on the same night (March 3) by a composite score of 75-36.6. In District 2 at Marquette High, No. 1 Rolla waxed the Lions (8) 83-30, then got beat in the next round. In District 1 at SLUH, all Fox (8) had to do was stop Cardinal Ritter (1), the Class 5 state champs in 2023 and Class 6 champs in 2024. In a season that will be best remembered for junior Jude Pribish going over 1,000 career points, the Warriors were axed 80-37 by district champ Ritter.
A year after the Jr. Bills beat the Jaguars (4) 54-45 in the District 1 final, the two teams met this year in the first round, but the result wasn’t quite as close with SLUH (5) winning 62-43. Seckman junior Sam Guethle topped 1,000 career points and led the team with 21 points per game. Guethle scored 19 points against SLUH.
Of course, the Festus girls are the feel-good story of this basketball season. The Tigers hadn’t won a district crown since 2014 before knocking off arch-rival Hillsboro 45-40 in Farmington on March 6. Thus ended the marvelous careers of Hawk seniors Kyra Matlock and Ashley Hilton, who will forever be tied together in the school’s record book for career points (Hilton) and assists (Matlock). Next season will be the first one since 2020 that a Hilton won’t be in Hillsboro’s starting lineup.
The De Soto girls (5) lost 64-40 to Cape Girardeau Central (5) in the first round of District 1. Like the boys, the Windsor girls were sent north for District 2, and despite being the higher seed (4) the Owls fell 56-29 to Rockwood Summit (5) at Lift for Life. Summit managed to score just 24 points in its semifinal loss to LFL.
The score differential for the Fox, Northwest and Seckman girls teams mimicked the boys, all three teams losing on March 2 by an average of 72.3-29. Top-seeded Jackson roared through District 1, and dismantled the Warriors 87-11. Seckman (5) had won eight of nine games going into districts before losing 57-48 to Kirkwood (4). Jaguar sophomore center Mollie Bailey had a double-double (12 points, 14 rebounds) against the Pioneers, and also for the season (15.6 points, 13.4 rebounds).
Northwest’s girls won back-to-back games at Crystal City and Herculaneum in February, but none of its other contests this season, which ended 2-21 after district champ Marquette (1) thumped the Lions 73-28. The Mustangs (24-4) and Indians (26-1) from Jackson play in the state quarterfinals at 6 p.m. Friday at Fox High. Neither team has won a state title, and Marquette has never reached the final four.