DE SOTO STOPS PERRYVILLE IN BIG JEFFCO CLASH 44-42

De SOTO, Mo. -- De Soto hit a shot just inside the 3-point arc with three seconds left to knock off Perryville 44-42 Thursday night and put the Lady Pirates' string of Jefferson Conference championships in jeapordy.

Since joining the conference in 1991, the Lady Pirates have owned or shared the Jeff Co. title, but the loss dropped the Lady Pirates to 6-1 in conference play while De Soto jumped to 7-0.

Perryville (11-9), which led 23-18 at halftime and maintained a four or five-point lead throughout most of the game, fell behind late but managed to tie the game at 42 with 11 seconds left.

Stacy Baer led Perryville with 17 points, while Natalie Bohnert pitched in with 11.

Scott City 35, Sikeston 23

SIKESTON, Mo. -- After yielding 14 points in the first quarter, Scott City limited Sikeston to nine points the remainder of the game.

Sikeston, with Erika Barnett hitting two 3-pointers, led 14-9 after the first quarter. Scott City, which was short-handed due to the flu, recovered for a 21-16 halftime lead.

Sikeston scored on its first possession of the second half, but found itself stuck on 18 points until under two minutes remained in the game.

"The kids played extremely well," said Scott City coach Randy White, who saw his team improve to 12-7. "We were very much concerned getting through the game because we were hit by a flu bug. I wasn't sure we would have five players for the game."

White used seven players on the night.

"One player didn't make the trip and three other varsity players were sick but gutted it out," said White.

In an effort to conserve on energy, the Lady Rams switched to a match-up zone in the second quarter and found it quite effective.

Freshman Lauren Groves continued to shine for Scott City, scoring a game-high 18 points.

Barnett finished with 12 points for Sikeston.

Chaffee 55, Portageville 51

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Chaffee built an 18-point halftime lead and then held off Portageville in the second half.

Morgan Kiefer led Chaffee (6-12), which ended a three-game skid, with 21 points. Jennifer Vandeven added 19 points and Malory Kiefer finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.

The Lady Red Devils held a 15-3 scoring advantage from the free-throw line as Portageville connected on just 3 of 12 attempts.

Charleston 46, Oran 19

CHARLESTON, Mo. -- Charleston held Oran to single-digit scoring in every quarter as it breezed to victory.

Charleston held a commanding 24-7 lead at halftime and had little difficulty putting the win away.

Alicia Rogers led Charleston (14-4) with 16 points.

Ashley Dirnberger accounted for 11 of Oran's 19 points.

Delta 45, Woodland 16

DELTA, Mo. -- Delta held Woodland to two first-half points as it routed the Lady Cardinals.

Rebecca Below led Delta (10-6) with 23 points and Rebecca Cook finished with 18.

Delta carried a 14-2 lead into the second quarter and outscored Woodland 13-0 in the period for a 27-2 advantage.

Windsor 39, St. Vincent 29

IMPERIAL, Mo. -- St. Vincent's Chelsey Brown scored 11 points as the Squaws fell in a low-scoring game against Windsor.

Windsor held a 17-9 lead at halftime and led 27-18 going into the fourth quarter.

The Squaws dropped to 6-10 on the season.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Leopold 51, Oak Ridge 48

ZALMA, Mo. -- Leopold overcame a fourth-quarter deficit to capture the three-team, round-robin Zalma Tournament.

Oak Ridge carried a 41-34 lead into the final period, but saw Leopold rally with a 17-7 scoring advantage.

Daniel Schaab led Leopold (7-9) with 17 points. Ashton James tallied 13 and Kevin Holzum added 10.

Beau Morrison paced Oak Ridge with 12 points while Ben Fadler and Zach Ruesler finished with 10 points apiece.

Leopold went 2-0 in the tournament, having defeated Zalma 64-43 on Tuesday.