Members of the Crystal City Hornet's District Championship basketball team present the winning plaque to the Crystal City Board of Education on March 16.
Crystal City's Donovan Tullock is one of the leading scorers in the St. Louis area with 21.5 points per game.
For the second time in six years, the Crystal City boys basketball team won a district championship and then had to face a strong Valle Catholic team in the Class 2 sectionals.
The Warriors beat the Hornets 67-55 in 2015 and they meet again in Ste. Genevieve tonight (March 2) in the same round. Tip off is 6 p.m.
This time Crystal’s district title came at the expense of host Valley of Caledonia as the Hornets cruised to a 67-52 win on Feb. 26.
The winner of the sectional advances to the Class 2 quarterfinals Friday. Crystal (12-11) had to be considered the underdog going in, with Valle (19-8), winners of District 3, hosting the game and having soundly beaten the Hornets 93-68 on Feb. 19. In that contest, the Warriors’ star guard, Carter Hoog, poured in 49 points.
“I usually don’t make predictions, but we’re not going to allow that to happen again,” said Phil Tessereau, Crystal’s first-year head coach.
Defense was the key in the district final for the Hornets, who outscored the Vikings 32-16 in the first half.
“We had opportunities to score more but we didn’t shoot well,” Tessereau said about the first half. “It was our defense that set the tone for the title.”
As he has all season, senior guard Donovan Tullock led Crystal in scoring with 18 points against Valley. It was the fifth straight game Tullock registered at least 18 points and he’s among the St. Louis area scoring leaders, averaging 21.7 points per game.
“It wasn’t as easy as it usually is. He had to work hard for those 18 points,” Tessereau said.
Senior guard Carson Short, who scored a career-high 38 points against St. Paul Lutheran on Feb. 1, logged 14 against Valley. Logan Anderson (eight points), Hunter Bassin (7) and Calloway Dashner (7) were Crystal’s other leading scorers in the district final.
“We had a couple of goals. One was to speed them up,” Tessereau said. “We also wanted to defend around the paint better than we have in recent games. Valley is big and strong and we’re more race horses.
“We really focused on their point guard even though he’s not a big scorer. We wanted to run him ragged all night. We thought we could get to him and we did a little bit.”
Tessereau said there were no restrictions on the number of fans admitted to the game, nor were masks required to be worn by spectators or participants.
“It was the biggest, loudest crowd we played in front of this year,” Tessereau said.
Against the Warriors, Tessereau said he expected Crystal to be a different team.
“Make no mistake, Valle’s very good,” he said. “They’re strong and physical, which sometimes creates problems for us.”
Dragons move on
After years of frustrating losses to its closest county rival Hillsboro, the De Soto boys basketball team won five of their six meetings with the Hawks this season.
The most recent victory was the biggest as the Dragons, the No. 4 seed in the Class 5 District 2 tournament, beat the Hawks (No. 5) 58-55 on Saturday. De Soto (14-11) played top-seeded North County (21-1) in the semifinals tonight (March 2). The Dragons were 0-3 against the Raiders this season.
In the district win over Hillsboro, Dragon senior center Jordan Mertens led all scorers with 24 points, making 12 of 13 shots (92 percent) from the field. Teammate Nick Krodinger sank five 3-point baskets and tallied 17 points. Zach Whaley led Hillsboro with 16 points. The Hawks finished 10-15, their first losing record since 2005-2006, when they were 7-18.
Festus (No. 3) is at Farmington (No. 2) tonight in the other District 2 semifinal. The Knights beat the Tigers 82-54 on Jan. 26.
Emily Holt scored 15 points for Festus in its 41-35 win against Hillsboro in the Class 5 District 2 tournament on Saturday.
Tigers beat Hawks, fall to top seed
Emily Holt of Festus kept misfiring from the top of the key against Hillsboro in the first round of the Class 5 District 2 girls basketball tournament.
So at halftime, after a tip from Tiger head coach Steve McFarland, the junior forward changed tactics and posted 11 points in the second half, 15 for the game.
Sophomore guard Josie Allen, who had scored 67 points in her previous two games (See Athlete of the Week), also got hot from the field in the final two quarters and finished with a game-high 16 points for host Festus (10-7), the No. 4 seed, in a 41-35 victory over the Hawks (No. 5) on Saturday.
“My shot from the top of the key wasn’t strong, so I tried to change that and drive to the basket. We passed the ball well,” Holt said.
“In the first four minutes we created a ton of turnovers but couldn’t get the ball in the basket,” McFarland said. “It wasn’t any one person. I told Emily, ‘If you’re not hitting that shot that they’re giving you, take it to the basket.’ She got more comfortable around the basket.”
It was the third meeting of the year between the two Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools rivals, and oddly, Hillsboro (6-17) had won their last encounter by the same score on Feb. 4. The Tigers scored 17 fourth-quarter points in a comeback 39-36 victory at Hillsboro in January.
Saturday’s game began with a basket by Holt and Allen scored next to make it 4-0. But the Hawks took advantage of their size inside with sophomore Dylan Day and led 16-12 at halftime. Hillsboro freshman Kaylee Hilton scored five points to go with a rebound and steal in the second quarter.
“In the first three or four minutes of the game we were kind of tight because we’ve got a lot of young girls,” Hillsboro head coach Andrew Hubbard said. “But we settled down and our pressure got to (Festus). We were able to get to the basket and get their big girls in foul trouble. We did a great job on the boards.”
Festus sophomore Mya Courtois sank a 3-point basket to open the second half and followed that with the next field goal to put the Tigers on top 17-16. Day countered with back-to-back baskets to lift the Hawks back into the lead, but Festus scored the next seven points on old-fashioned 3-point plays by Holt and Allen and another free throw by Allen, who logged eight rebounds and five steals.
Hillsboro senior Zoe Wood scored next to cut the Festus advantage to 24-22 with 1:46 left in the third. Wood was effective using a short hook shot and finished with eight points in her final outing for the Hawks.
“She had back-to-back games against De Soto and Perryville where she took that next step,” Hubbard said. “In the second half when things were a little out of whack, we got her the ball in the high post and she made things happen.”
Courtois grabbed a defensive rebound, fed Allen the ball and she scored the last basket of the third to make it 26-22.
“I’m glad we got the win and I was glad I could help my team out,” Allen said. “I was trying to get to the basket and do what I could.”
“We’re long out front,” Hubbard said. “We’ve got size and length and our goal was to stay in front of (Allen). We knew we had to get the ball out of her hands and make somebody else beat us.”
Like she did in the third, Courtois began the fourth quarter with another trey before senior guard Tristan Foulk assisted on Holt’s bucket to widen the Festus lead to 31-22. Day scored next and Holt made two free throws as the Hawks wouldn’t surrender. Junior Sara Stokes hit from downtown and Wood lofted a successful hook shot to cap a seven-point Hillsboro run and suddenly the Festus margin had shrunk to 33-31 with 5:00 to play.
Despite the Hawks’ size advantage, 5-5 Festus sophomore Taylor Thompson pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds. Junior center Lily Knickman had four rebounds for the Tigers and after she and Holt got them at both ends of the floor, Holt finished hers off with a basket to make it 36-31 with 3:45 to play.
“I told the girls after the game, we play North County (the No. 1 seed) in the semifinals and they’re big,” McFarland said. “They said, ‘Coach, you say that about everybody we play.’ When we’re playing man defense, Mya’s girl is usually five or six inches taller than her.”
Allen’s 3-ball with 2:05 to play stretched the Tiger lead to 41-33, but Day posted up and made the last basket of the game to finish with 12 points.
“She has extremely soft hands. She’s one of our consistent players,” Hubbard said. “We did a better job tonight of getting her the ball down low and making her the focal point of our offense.”
The season came to an end for Festus on Monday night as Tigers fell 77-33 to top-seeded North County in the semifinals. Farmington (No. 2) dispatched De Soto (No. 3) 51-27 in the other semifinal on Monday. The Knights and Raiders play for the championship Thursday at 6 p.m.