It had been 30 years since the Herculaneum High School girls basketball team had won the Central High tournament in Park Hills.
The Blackcats were the last girls team from the county to win the prestigious Lady Rebels Tournament played every year the week between Christmas and Dec. 31.
On New Year’s Eve 2025, Festus High lived up to its No. 1 seed and improved to 9-0 after beating Arcadia Valley (3, 5-3) 76-63 to win the tournament for the first time. The Tigers were fourth in 2023 and third in 2024.
Junior Lillian Kennedy has played in the tournament three times. Kennedy and senior Alyzah Scaggs led Festus in scoring last season with 13 points per game.
“We’ve been preparing for this and we wanted it bad,” Kennedy said. “Half of our starters are seniors so we’re trying to make it to state hopefully. My shot was feeling great.”
Kennedy led Festus (Arcadia Valley is also the Tigers) with 19 points, and was one of six players on her team with 10 or more points. Scaggs (13), senior Olivia Madden (12), junior Jahmeshia Patterson (12), sophomore Abby Abrams (10) and senior Addison Smith (10) managed to all get to double digits, a rare feat.
“We needed that,” Festus head coach Aaron Portell said about Kennedy’s offense. “She’s been kind of hit and miss this year. She had a great game in the semifinals. If we get her back up to 12 or 13 points a game, that’s just going to make us more dangerous.”
Festus led AV 42-26 at the break and maintained a comfortable 55-40 lead going into the fourth. A 3-point basket by Abrams gave Festus its largest lead at 64-45, and Patterson’s basket shortly after made it 68-53 with 3:00 to play. But within the next minute, Patterson and Kennedy picked up their fourth fouls, and AV whittled the Festus lead to 10 points.
A field goal by Smith and two free throws each by Madden and Abrams settled the outcome. Madden had nine rebounds, five assists and four steals. She leads the Tigers with seven boards per game.
AV tried to full-court press Festus from the beginning, but Portell said his team was ready.
“We had some confidence and played with attention and alertness and handled it just fine,” Portell said. “As the game went on, and they started inching closer, we started letting the pressure get to us and made some bad decisions. It’s something we can work on in practice. We’ve got the guards to handle the press.”
One of the top athletes on the Class 4 defending state track and field champions, Patterson has proven to be a solid rebounder and reliable scorer.
“Her vertical’s unbelievable. When that ball goes up, she’s probably going to get it,” Portell said.
Festus began the tournament with a 65-58 win over Steelville (8, 4-7) on Dec. 26. Madden led the way with 21 points and 12 rebounds, 11 on the defensive end of the floor.
The host Rebels (4, 2-3) had won their tournament the previous two years, but the Tigers beat them for a second time in two weeks. Festus beat Central 46-32 at home Dec. 15, then 53-45 in the tournament semifinals. Madden had 10 points, six assists and four steals. Scaggs sank three 3s and led Festus with 15 points.
In a battle of unbeatens, Festus traveled to Jackson High (9-0) on Monday and the Indians won 62-26. The Indians were 25-2 last year but didn’t win their Class 6 district. After hosting Fort Zumwalt North (4-1) tonight, the Tigers are at Jefferson High (3-5) on Friday.
“We’ve played quality teams with good records. We were 20-6 last year and lost one senior so I expected success,” Portell said.
Johnson has guided two county teams to Sechrest titles
When senior Drew Johnson buried his seventh 3-point basket of the night, the Festus High School boys basketball team took a 70-66 lead in overtime against Potosi High.
“Left wing corner, in front of our student section,” Johnson said. “I remember seeing them jump in the air.”
Clinging to a 72-71 lead with 22 seconds remaining in OT of the 70th Bob Sechrest Jr. Christmas Tournament championship at Central High on New Year’s Eve, Johnson’s final two points of the night came from the free-throw line. Earlier in OT, junior Cooper Schilly missed both attempts from the foul line, but with 6.1 seconds left, Schilly drained both free throws to make it a two-possession lead at 76-72. Junior Braydon Wilkes added one last free throw and the Tigers beat the top-seeded and previously unbeaten Trojans 77-73.
“I saw a bunch of high school kids battle through adversity, highs and lows,” Festus head coach Dan Johnson said. “We try to tell them all the time, ‘Nothing’s really fun, unless it’s really hard.’ Tonight was a hard-fought win, and I’ll bet you our kids had the most fun than they had in a long time. We made enough plays to come out on top.”
Seeded third, Festus won all four games in the tournament to improve to 7-3. It’s the first time the Tigers have ever won the Sechrest championship, and the first time a team from the county won it since Hillsboro High did in 2017. That was under Johnson, who’s in his third season as head coach at Festus. His son, Drew, plastered Potosi with 30 points and surpassed 1,000 points and 200 3-point career baskets in the game.
“I don’t have any numbers I’m aiming for,” Drew said. “Helping my team win the conference and get to state will be another added milestone.”
Drew was the water boy for a talented Hawks squad that had Gaven Pinkley and Michael Brewer when they won the Sechrest title.
“That was a super fun team to watch.”
Right before the Festus boys beat the Trojans, the Festus girls beat Arcadia Valley 76-63 to win the 40th Lady Rebel Tournament for the first time.
“It’s a good night to be a Festus Tiger, that’s for sure,” Dan Johnson said. “Not a happier new year for the folks in Festus than this one, I couldn’t imagine.”
Johnson downplayed coaching his second team to the Sechrest title.
“I know how to coach a bunch of good players. We had a good team back then, and we have a team full of them now.”
The Tiger boys were 3-3 going into the tournament largely because of the strength of their schedule and the acclimation of some of the players from football to basketball. Being able to keep up with a Trojan team that’s scored 73 or more points in seven straight games is a good sign the Festus players are fully in basketball mode.
In the semifinals, Potosi erased a halftime deficit for a comeback 73-69 win over Hillsboro. Senior post Peyton Rowe scored a season-best 33 points and grabbed 10 rebounds against the Hawks. Sophomore Rhenn Mapes and junior Kanaan Wilson are two of the top Trojan scorers. They combined for 35 points against Hillsboro.
“They’ve got three kids that are absolutely great players, scorers, and we had no answer to stop them,” Dan Johnson said. “We tried four different defenses tonight, even one we hadn’t practiced. We talked about it at halftime, ran it twice, it didn’t work and we moved on.”
Wilkes stepped off of the gridiron Nov. 29 when Festus was beaten by eventual state champion Kearney High in the Class 4 state semifinals. He scored 20 points, pulled down nine rebounds, had four assists against the Trojans and has scored 20 or more points three times this season.
A 6-8 junior forward, Nate Womack had a double-double for the Tigers with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Womack scored a season-high 26 points in a 75-56 win at Windsor High, against the defending Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools champion Owls on Dec. 16.
Festus began the tournament Dec. 27 with a 71-52 win over Steelville (14, 4-4). Senior Jackson Smith led the Tigers with 19 points and finished his complete-game effort with seven rebounds, two assists and three steals.
In the quarterfinals, Festus beat North County (11, 3-3) 68-36 with Schilly leading the Tigers with 18 points and four 3s. Johnson coached the Raiders before coming to Festus.
One of the top pitchers in the county, Smith poured in a season-high 26 points in a 67-58 win over Farmington (2, 7-4) in the semifinals. Womack scored 14 points, had eight boards and swatted away four shots.
Festus is at Jefferson High (7-6) on Friday.