Jackson girls celebrate their annual holiday

For the third straight year, the Jackson girls basketball team exited the Show Me Center as Holiday Classic champions.

Jackson continued its hot outside shooting and stingy defense in a 57-45 win over Massac County on Thursday in the championship game of the event, sponsored this year by Saint Francis Medical Center.

The Holiday Classic title was the third in three tries for Jackson coach Sam Sides.

"Hard to maintain that run, but we'll take it," Sides said. "You take it when you can get them."

The Indians moved to 8-0, and have collected two tournament this season titles after starting the season with a championship at the Farmington Tournament. Jackson opened last season 11-0 before suffering its first loss.

"It's awesome, especially my senior year," Jackson's Kylie Werner said. "Hopefully, we can keep this going as long as we can."

A night after hitting six first-half 3-pointers en route to a semifinal win over Notre Dame, Jackson hit four 3s in the first half on Thursday and built a 16-point halftime lead.

Jackson sophomore Lindsay Poole had two 3-pointers in the opening half, and Werner and Andrea Barnes had one apiece before the break.

"For the most part we hit some big shots," Sides said. "We got some good play off the bench. I thought Andrea Barnes did a great job the whole tournament."

A fast start out of the gate

The top-seeded Indians scored the game's first nine points and led by as many as 12 points in the opening quarter. Jackson continued to pour it on No. 3 Massac County in the second quarter, using a 9-1 run at the start of the quarter to go up 26-8. The score was 34-16 at the half.

"We got things going early," Sides said. "We put them under the gun."

Jackson built several leads of 20 points in the second half, but by the end of the third Massac had cut the lead to 14. The Indians had only one field goal in the fourth, but they hit their first eight free throws to hold on to the lead.

Werner finished with a game-high 22 points, 11 in each half. Over the past two games, Werner averaged 18 points a game, lifting her season average to 14.1 points per game.

"I practiced so hard," Werner said. "I've been in the gym every morning shooting. It was really good for me to get confidence going."

Defense was again an important factor for the Indians, which held fast-paced Massac County to 45 points. Jackson held Notre Dame to just 35 points in Wednesday's semifinal.

"We try to emphasize from the get-go playing hard-nosed," Sides said. "Massac's a good team, you can't give them any openings."

Bobbie Jones added 13 points for the Indians. All five starters for Jackson had at least five points.

Jackson's next game will be at Poplar Bluff on Jan. 2.

"We battle, we're scrappy," Sides said. "I like this team a lot."

Destiny Mitchell led Massac County with 14 points, Josha Rogers had 12 and Jasmine Davis finished with 10.

Other games

In the third-place game, Notre Dame (4-5) again struggled offensively in a 60-37 loss to No. 2 Farmington.

The fourth-seeded Bulldogs had just 11 points at halftime, including zero field goals in the second quarter.

Kristain Burger led the Bulldogs with 10 points.

Krista Miesner scored 22 points for Perryville in the consolation championship, but it was not enough to stop a balanced scoring attack from Sparta in a 74-50 rout.

Sparta, the fifth seed, had four scorers in double figures.

In the seventh-place game Central (2-6) got by No. 8 Woodland 50-31.

The seventh-seeded Tigers were led by sophomore Tierra Walker's 16 points. Freshman center Wendi Zickfield added 14 points for Central.

Woodland got 10 points from Tasha Lincoln.

Jackson 57, Massac County 45

Massac Co. 7 11 14 13 -- 45

Jackson 17 17 12 11 -- 57

MASSAC COUNTY (45) -- Destiny Mitchell 14, Josha Rogers 12, Jasmine Davis 10, Allison Powell 2, Kaitlin Smith 2, Kelsey Bradford 2, Hayley Hosman 2, Mallory Gentry 1. FG 14, FT 14-20, F 17 (3-pointers: Mitchell 2, Rogers 1. Fouled out: none)

JACKSON (57) -- Kylie Werner 22, Bobbie Jones 13, Amanda Peiffer 6, Lindsay Poole 6, Andrea Barnes 5, Cody Goodpasture 5. FG 18, FT 16-24, F 17 (3-pointers: Poole 2, Werner 2, Barnes 1. Fouled out: none)

Farmington 60, Notre Dame 37

Notre Dame 7 4 13 13 -- 37

Farmington 14 17 19 10 -- 60

NOTRE DAME (37) -- Amanda Toole 7, Meridith Medlin 6, Kristain Burger 10, Claudia Brauss 4, Miranda Schlosser 6, Emily Blattel 3, Brooke Beussink 1. FG 13, FT 9-18, F 14 (3-pointers: Blattel 1, Toole 1. Fouled out: none)

FARMINGTON (60) -- Sydney Winslow 11, Taylor Jenson 7, Natalie Sago 5, Kristen Hayes 8, Erin Parks 12, Danielle Littrell 4, Briley Milfeld 7, Sarah Ward 4, Tiffany Sucharski 2. FG 24, FT 7-10, F 18 (3-pointers: Sago 1, Jenson 1, Hayes 2. Fouled out: Littrell)

Sparta 74, Perryville 50

Perryville 8 10 10 22 -- 50

Sparta 13 25 24 12 -- 74

PERRYVILLE (50) -- Krista Miesner 22, Amber Hacker 6, Meghan Roth 7, Alicia Kueker 3, Kendra Schilli 3, Annette Weibrecht 4, Becky Bachmann 2, Alyssa Bauwens 1. FG 19, FT 8-17, F 15 (3-pointers: Miesner 3, Schilli 1. Fouled out: none)

SPARTA (74) -- Ashley Perry 19, Kasey Claybourn 15, Grace Weber 13, Liere Dancy 12, Lauren Buch 7, Katie Gerlach 2, Bridget Holloway 6. FG 30, FT 11-13, F 17 (3-pointers: Weber 3. Fouled out: none)

Central 50, Woodland 31

Woodland 12 9 8 2 -- 31

Central 9 13 14 14 -- 50

WOODLAND (31) -- Kyla Choate 3, Sasha Hutson 2, Tasha Lincoln 10, Francee VanGennip 7, Lauren Johnston 2, Cortney Glastetter 7. FG 14, FT 2-4, F 12 (3-pointers: Choate 1. Fouled out: none)

CENTRAL (50) -- Dani Gross 2, Kristin Shirrell 5, Lauren Loftis 1, Wendi Zickfield 14, Courtney Schuessler 4, Gina Yarbrough 2, Christina Sexton 6, Tierra Walker 16. FG 20, FT 10-18, F 14 (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none)