With players like junior Madalyn Bone, the De Soto girls basketball team is getting closer to challenging among the Jefferson County Activities Association large schools.
Bone cleaved visiting Hillsboro for 16 points in the fourth quarter, but the Hawks had already built a double-digit lead and held on for a 49-43 win. Bone tied Hillsboro senior Lexi Close with a game-high 19 points.
The Dragons lost 61-59 to JCAA large champion Festus Monday, then took the bigger, more experienced Hawks deep into the fourth quarter before being subdued by Close’s free-throw shooting. Close leads the St. Louis area in shooting from the foul line having made 92 of 106 (86.8 percent) free throws for the season going into Thursday's game.
The Hawks (17-6, 3-1) finished second in the conference. They only have two more games – Feb. 16 at Grandview and Feb. 23 against Seckman – before hosting the Class 4 District 2 tournament that includes De Soto. The Dragons are idle until Tuesday when they host Fredericktown.
Weis dives into second place
Eureka diver Ally Weis put together the top individual performance by a Wildcat at Thursday night’s Suburban West Conference Championship at Lindbergh.
Weis finished second in the diving competition with 461.05 points. Marquette’s Ashley Yarbrough, the defending state champion, won the conference crown.
“I feel like I did good today, and I feel I hit 10 out of 11 of my dives,” said Weis, who finished seventh at state last year and will compete again in the Missouri State High School Activities Association Swimming and Diving Championships Feb. 18 at the Rec-Plex in St. Peters.
“For next week, I’m just going to try to do the same thing I did today, keep relaxed between each of my dives and not try to get too uptight about anything.”
Eureka finished fifth in the conference meet with 196 points. Marquette won the conference crown with 611 points, and Lafayette was third with 514.
“It was good,” Eureka swimming coach Nate Kortuem said of his team’s performance. “Our girls did the best they could. They swam really tough mentally.”
Lily Harrell was involved in three third-place finishes for Eureka in the swimming portion of the conference championships.
She captured third in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 13.23 seconds. She also helped the 200 medley relay team take third with a time of 1:54.62, and the 400 freestyle relay team finish third in 3:55.26, just missing the cut off time of 3:53.99 to qualify for state.
Harrell also finished fourth in the 100 backstroke with a time of 59.70, and teammate Megan McSalley came in sixth (1:01.79). Eureka’s 200 freestyle relay team was fifth at 1:52.79, and Ciara Hynes finished eighth in the 100 freestyle at 57.06.
Wildcats eliminated from Wickenheiser Cup
Eureka's hockey team entered Thursday night’s Mid-States Club Hockey Association Wickenheiser Cup preliminary game against Ladue at Queeny Recreation Complex knowing its season was over.
The Wildcats were eliminated from the Wickenheiser Cup after tying Lafayette, losing to Fort Zumwalt South, combined with the Bulldogs’ win over Lafayette on Tuesday.
But that did not mean the Wildcats would go quietly in their final game, which turned out to be a 5-4 loss to Ladue.
Eureka took a 1-0 lead with 14:35 to play in the opening period on a goal by Zach Stolz, but Ladue tied the game just 2:30 later.
Kyle Watters scored for Eureka with 8:04 to play in the first to take a 2-1 lead, but Ladue tied the game again with 6:16 left in the period.
Ladue took a one-goal advantage with 5:35 left in the second, only to have Stolz tie the game again with a goal a little over a minute later.
Ladue went ahead with 10:26 to play in the final period, but Stolz finished a hat trick with a goal with 6:14 to play. But the Rams scored the deciding goal with 2:07 to play, and this time, the Wildcats didn’t have an answer.
“Given the situation we were in, we came in loose,” Eureka head coach Kevin Markovitz said. “The boys just played with a lot of effort and positivity. You could tell they weren’t worried about making mistakes. They played a good loose game for us.”