Kelly girls post 50-49 victory for district title

Kelly coach Rod McQuerter has been waiting the entire season for his team to catch a break.

The Hawks finally got one at the most opportune time.

Junior Nikki Weiny picked up a loose ball and banked in a short jumper with 3 seconds left to lift Kelly past Greenville 50-49 in the Class 3 District 2 championship game Friday night at Three Rivers Community College.

The Bears failed to inbound the ball before time expired and the Kelly bench -- led by McQuerter -- exploded onto the court.

"Right place at the right time," McQuerter said of the final play. "We haven't got many breaks this year, but tonight we got a break."

Kelly, which topped Greenville in the title game for the second straight season, will face Doniphan in Wednesday's sectional at Poplar Bluff. The Donettes crushed Caruthersville 94-61.

The Hawks (20-8) secured the program's 10th district championship and seventh straight 20-win season. But it certainly wasn't easy.

Sarah Woodgeard, who scored a game-high 36 points, put Greenville ahead 49-48 when she made a pair of clutch free throws with 12 seconds left. Kelly inbounded the ball, dribbled to halfcourt and called timeout with 8.9 seconds remaining.

The Hawks gave the ball to Brittany Ponder, who lost control of the ball as she dribbled from the top of the key to the free-throw line. There was a wild scramble and the ball rolled to the right wing where Weiny picked it up, took one dribble and banked in a 5-foot jumper.

"I'm proud of what the girls did," McQuerter said. "They could have given up when there was only eight seconds to go, but we preach positive attitudes and they had a positive attitude at the end. It showed when the horn sounded."

As Kelly celebrated, Greenville (14-12) walked off the floor with a second straight district championship loss.

"I'm keeping my head high because we played hard," Bears coach Diane Meyer said. "I told them that's all we can ask for, a chance to win. It just wasn't meant to be."

Woodgeard did her best to single-handedly lead Greenville to victory.

With the Lady Bears trailing 44-40 with 2:14 left, the 5-10 sophomore guard made a pair of free throws and tied it at 44-all with a tough jumper. When Kelly went ahead by three with 48 seconds to go, Woodgeard raced the length of the court and as she bounced off a defender, laid the ball in while being fouled. Her free throw tied the game and after Mindy Robert made one free throw to make it 48-47, Woodgeard drew another foul and made two more free throws to put Greenville back in front.

Woodgeard scored nine of her 11 fourth-quarter points in the final 2:07 and was 15-for-16 at the free-throw line.

"What do you think about my sophomore?" Meyer said. "She's indescribable as an athlete. I've been coaching 13 years and I haven't had that good of an athlete. I think that's a name around here that everybody is going to remember for awhile."

McQuerter was already aware of it.

"We knew she would get a lot of points tonight, but at the end we wanted to make them very tough," McQuerter said. "That's when we doubled and tried to make it tough on her."

Weiny led a balanced Kelly scoring attack with 11 points. The Hawks hung on despite missing 13 of their 26 free throw attempts, including two by Kayla Cissell with 21 seconds left.

There were 10 ties and 17 lead changes as neither team led by more than four points.

KELLY 50, GREENVILLE 49

Greenville 13 10 14 12 -- 49

Kelly 9 12 15 14 -- 50

GREENVILLE (49) -- Henson 6, Becker 1, Woodgeard 36, Deering 2, Wren 2, Peach 2. FG 16, FT 16-18, F 18 (3-pointers: Woodgeard 1. Fouled out: none)

KELLY (50) -- Brittany Ponder 9, Sarah Ruff 7, Lauren Gean 2, Leigh Ann Buchheit 5, Mindy Robert 6, Kayla Cissell 2, Nikki Weiny 11, Katee Moore 2, Debra Hall 6. FG 18, FT 13-26, F 11 (3-pointers: Buchheit 1. Fouled out: none)

-- Jeff McNiell, Daily American Republic

Class 2 District 3

After pulling off a pair of upsets in the Class 2 District 3 girls basketball tournament, St. Vincent simply was overmatched in the championship game and fell to top seed Metro 81-21 on Friday night at South County Tech.

The sixth-seeded Squaws ended their season 11-16. Metro, Class 2 runner-up last season, improved to 25-3 and will play Stoutland on Wednesday in a sectional game.

"We made a good run," St. Vincent coach Terry Wengert said. "The girls didn't give up."

St. Vincent used fourth-quarter runs to get by No. 3 Crossroads and No. 2 Viburnum, but on Friday the Squaws were down 31-8 after one quarter. The score was 57-15 at the half, and Metro outscored St. Vincent 20-1 in the third period.

Alexandra Lundy led St. Vincent with six points.

METRO 81, ST. VINCENT 21

St. Vincent 8 7 1 5 -- 21

Metro 31 26 20 4 -- 81

ST. VINCENT (21) -- Alexandra Lundy 6, Lacey Siegmund 4, Jessica Welker 4, Kelsey Cissell 3, Brooke Brown 2, Kate Guyot 2. FG 7, FT 6-11, F 6 (3-pointers: Welker 1. Fouled out: none)

METRO (81) -- Brittany Dodson 19, Lauren Witherspoon 12, Ebony Davis 10, LaChelle Livingston 10, Dekeisah Mathis 10, Che Brown 8, Moneisha Davis 6, Akia Jackson 4, Stephanie Moore 2. FG 35, FT 7-8, F 7 (3-pointers: Livingston 2, Mathis 2. Fouled out: none)

-- Southeast Missourian