Central's McDonald surprised by honor

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Megan McDonald got a surprise Tuesday night at the 44th annual Poplar Bluff Letter Club basketball banquet. There to pick up her first-team all-conference award, the Central senior was also named the Bob Gray Award winner as the conference's most outstanding player.

"Well, yeah," said McDonald when ask if the award was a surprise. "I mean I didn't think I'd even come close for a basketball award."

Jackson coach Sam Sides was named the SEMO coach of the year in his first season leading the Lady Indians. Jackson was 6-0 in a conference that had four teams play in district finals and two reach the state quarterfinals. Sides, an assistant at Jackson the last 12 seasons under Ron Cook, was 26-4 in his first year as head coach.

Two Jackson players won the free throw award: Jack Puisis hit 81.5 percent (66-of-81) of his attempts while Katie Loos was 47-of-56 (83.9 percent) at the line in conference games.

Notre Dame's Sommer McCauley was awarded the scoring award for averaging 17.2 points.

Tyler Hansbrough of Poplar Bluff won the John Gibbs Award as the most outstanding player for the conference. Poplar Bluff's John David Pattillo was named the boys coach of the year.

While Central finished 1-5 in the SEMO race, McDonald was a standout. She averaged 16.5 points a game for the Tigers and hit 73.8 percent of her field goals.

McDonald, an all-state pitcher in softball, will finish her high school career with 12 varsity letters -- in basketball, soccer and softball. She plans to play softball in college at Southeast Missouri State. She was a unamious choice and the first Central player to win the award since Nicole Thiele in 1997.

University of Missouri coach Quin Snyder was the keynote speaker at the event. The All-SEMO Conference team is voted on by the conference coaches.