Things were looking bleak for Hillsboro.
De Soto led the Hawks 8-4 after the first quarter and extended that lead to 12-5 after senior Sarah Peoples scored her seventh point of the game with 6:28 left in the second.
Then Hillsboro sophomore Elaina Readnour crumpled to the court after injuring her knee. Readnour writhed in pain and had to be helped to the bench, where she remained with her knee iced for the rest of the game.
“I was walking away from that and I was worried about her and I was trying to think about the rest of the game when I looked up at the scoreboard and saw we had scored five points in the first 10 minutes,” Hillsboro head coach Joe Fehlker said. “We needed to regroup. We were getting shots but they weren’t going in and that’s basketball. We shot it with more confidence and they started to go in.”
Following Readnour’s injury, junior Kelsey Boyd and senior Lillie Schoenky made the next two baskets for the Hawks, who played with renewed vigor.
The score was an even 18-18 at the half, then Boyd found the touch from 3-point range in the third quarter as the Hawks downed the Dragons, 48-37, to improve to 11-10 this season.
“We’re getting closer late in the season and when one of us goes down, we want to play for them,” said Boyd who finished with four 3-pointers and a game-high 18 points. “I go off of what my teammates give me. I usually know it’s going in when it goes off of my fingers.”
Peoples didn’t score again after her field goal in the second quarter and fouled out with 3:55 to play in the game. She leads the Dragons (7-14) with 39 treys this season.
“We had to figure out where (Peoples) was on the baseline and we had to close her out hard and make sure she didn’t drive in on us either,” Boyer said.
Senior Madalyn Bone leads De Soto with 16 points per game, but was limited to 11 points against the Hawks. Head coach Sam Rauls said she’s not been herself lately.
“She is struggling with something off the court and it’s affecting the whole team,” said Rauls, who called time in the second half to admonish his team’s effort.
“They just don’t listen,” he said of his players. “That’s the extent to it. It’s the same thing that happened against Festus. We don’t listen and know where the 3-point shooters are. You can’t leave Boyd, (Hillsboro senior Carlie Sanders), (Festus players Abby Rickermann or Jenn Oetting) open all night long because they’re going to catch fire. You try to put a game plan together, but we’re not focusing on anything we’re supposed to do.”
Fehlker said after Peoples made her only 3-point basket of the game in the first quarter, his team did a good job of adjusting.
“We knew Sarah and Bone are really good 3-point shooters and that wasn’t something we were willing to give up,” Fehlker said. “I’m proud of the girls for executing our game plan. Kenzie Baker, Carlie Sanders and Lillie Schoenky did a fantastic job at the top of our zone for all four quarters.”
Sanders averages 6.5 steals per game, and she had at least 10 against the Dragons. Sanders was held to well under (at 6 points) her season average of 15.7, but many of the turnovers she created ended up as baskets for the Hawks.
“Her acceleration is first-rate,” Fehlker said. “And that’s the work of the other girls on defense to put her in the right spot. She was giving maximum effort and guarding all 84 feet the whole game. That’s a senior leader for you.”
Rauls said he respects Sanders’ talent, but his players made the steals easier to get.
“It’s easy to create havoc when you’re throwing lollipop passes across the floor,” Rauls said. “She’s a good player, but when you give her a rainbow to intercept ... we played scared.”
Junior Hannah Vaughn scored 12 points for the Hawks and junior Kendall Boyer was the other Dragon to reach double figures with 13 points.
The Hawks play Grandview tonight (Thursday) and wrap up the regular season Feb. 22 against Seckman.
The Dragons were at Fredericktown on Tuesday and hosted Ste. Genevieve on Wednesday, both after the Leader deadline. They close out the regular season Feb. 19 at home against Union and Feb. 22 at Cape Girardeau Central.
De Soto and Hillsboro are both in the Class 4 District 2 tournament in Farmington.
Hornets ride emotions to win over Herky
The emotions coming from the Crystal City boys basketball players and coaches was palpable before Friday’s tipoff against JCAA small-schools rival Herculaneum.
The host Hornets rode that wave of emotion stemming from the cardiac arrest and hospitalization of 12-year-old Makenna Jones to an 8-0 lead against the Blackcats. Jones, the daughter of Crystal City athletic director and girls basketball coach Ken Jones, has been at St. Louis Children’s Hospital since Feb. 4.
The girls game between the Hornets and Blackcats that was supposed to precede the boys was moved to Wednesday, after the Leader deadline.
The Blackcats responded in the second quarter and took a brief lead, but junior Griffin Morris sank a 3-point basket with 1:14 left in the first half to give the Hornets a 20-19 lead and they went on to win 65-45. The two teams played the first game of the season, with the Blackcats winning by 23 points.
“It was incredible. Everybody bonded together because of it and all week has been nothing but love,” said Crystal City senior Chris Eisenbeis, who made the first two baskets of the game and finished with 14 points. “We needed this win to show this school we could do something to support (the Jones family) and what kind of community we have here.”
Seniors Brady DeGeare (18 points) and Noah Hutton (16) and junior Griffin Morris (12) also scored in double figures for the Hornets, who improved to 5-17 this season. DeGeare surpassed 1,600 career points, and head coach Sean Breeze said he’s the first Hornet to score that many points in the past decade.
“This was for Ken and his family,” said DeGeare, who scored 23 points in the first meeting against Herky. “We wanted to get back at our rivals. This gets us rolling into districts. We’re hoping to win in the first round and go from there.”
Breeze said he was proud of the way his team played under control and stayed focused despite a rough week, with everyone concerned about Makenna and her family.
“The kids were fired up,” Breeze said. “This game generates a whole lot of emotions in front of a big crowd all of the time. There were a lot of emotions going in. But the kids were focused and got off to a good start because if you don’t, Herculaneum will jump up and get you.”
Herculaneum senior James Moloney always saves his best performances for the Hornets, and he was a force on the boards with a game-high 14 rebounds. He also led the Blackcats with 16 points, shooting 5-of-7 from the field and 6-of-7 from the free-throw line.
“We wanted to block out and keep them off the boards,” Eisenbeis said. “The (3-pointers) were falling and we got everything we needed tonight.”
Moloney picked up his fourth foul with 2:45 to play and the Hornets leading 53-42. The Blackcats picked up four fouls in seven seconds as they tried to stay in the game with the hopes the Hornets wouldn’t make their free throws. That strategy backfired as Hutton, DeGeare and Eisenbeis sank 10 of the next 12 foul shots to keep Herky at bay.
“We’ve had some trouble this year closing some games out, but the kids hit their free throws tonight when they needed to,” Breeze said. “Along with timely buckets by Chris in the second half, that really helped us.”
The Hornets close out the regular season tonight (Thursday) at home against Valle.
The Blackcats finished with home games against Bismarck (Wednesday) and Valley Park tonight.
Blue Jays climb over .500 mark; Makenna Jones improving
With the Class 3 District 3 tournament starting Saturday, the Jefferson girls basketball team couldn’t have picked a better time to get hot as the Blue Jays have won five of their last six games, and their last three, including Monday’s 67-39 win at Crystal City.
Jefferson improved to 12-11 overall and 3-2 in the JCAA small-schools division. Crystal City, playing without head coach Ken Jones and his daughter, senior Maebry Jones, fell to 8-13 and 0-4.
Neither Jones has played nor coached since Feb. 4, when Ken Jones’ daughter, 12-year-old Makenna Jones, suffered a cardiac arrest. She is at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Makenna’s breathing tube was removed and she was no longer under sedation as of Monday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said Tuesday morning. She said a biopsy of Makenna’s heart to find the source of the inflammation was inconclusive.
Makenna’s mother, Lindsay Jones, had posted on Facebook that her daughter tested positive for the flu in January.
Before Monday’s game, Jefferson athletic director Jason Dreyer gave Crystal City assistant girls basketball coach Spencer Portell a check for $1,303 to help the Jones family with costs. Each building in the Jefferson R-7 School District raised money to help out, Dreyer said.
“I’m close to Ken and when that happened I wanted to do something, so we sent an email to staff and we had donations at three home games last week as well,” Dreyer said.
A GoFundMe account set up to support the Jones family has raised $2,655. Crystal City raised $1,566 for the family during its boys home game Friday against Herculaneum.