KELLY GOES TO 5-0; DELTA ENDS GAME WITH JUST FOUR PLAYERS IN CHAFFEE TOURNAMENT

CHAFFEE -- The Kelly Lady Hawks got another big night from Marissa Essner and improved to 5-0 on the season with a 56-43 win over Oran in a semifinal game of the Chaffee Tournament Wednesday night.

Chaffee's girls beat Sikeston 49-45 to reach the semifinals and earn their first win of the year. The Lady Red Devils will play Delta, a 59-55 winner over East Prairie.

Essner, who has scored at least 20 points in all but one game this year, led the Lady Hawks with 21 points, followed by her sister, Dana Essner with 11 and Audrey Burford with 11.

"We didn't shoot very well, but we played very hard and pretty good defense," said Kelly coach Curt Finley. They have two big girls and I was proud of the effort. The kids are working the ball pretty good, we just missed some easy shots tonight.

Maria Eftink led Oran with 16, followed by Ashley Dirnberger with 13.

Kelly will play the winner of Chaffee and Scott City Saturday at 5 p.m. for the championship.

Chaffee had three players score in double figures. Jodi Pfefferkord and Angela Holland each scored 12 and Jennifer Vandeven added 11.

Delta's victory over East Prairie was remarkable considering the Lady Bobcats played with only five players, and finished out the fourth quarter with only four players, since Sarah Cook fouled out.

Delta, which was led by Rebecca Cook's 20 points, improved to 2-3 on the season.

BOYS

JR. VARSITY

Notre Dame's junior varsity posted a 56-36 win over Scott City in the semifinal game of the Meadow Heights JV Tournament.

Scott Wittenborn scored 24 and David Unterreiner had 13 for Notre Dame.

Scott City was led by Jordan Comer with 10 points.

Notre Dame improved to 5-2 on the season.

JR. HIGH

Cape Central's eighth-grade basketball team defeated Jackson 49-35 Wednesday, but Jackson won the ninth-grade game 52-49.

Mitch Craft scored 18 points and Micah Reutzel had 13 in the eighth-grade game for Cape Central.

In the ninth-grade game, Austin McDowell scored 20 for Jackson and Jeremiah Dukes had 14 for Cape Central.

SWIMMING

Kirkwood 126, Cape Central 59

ST. LOUIS -- Cape Central, in its second meet of the year, won its first event despite falling 126-59 overall.

After a disappointing start Central picked up firsts in the last three events. Stratton Tingle won the backstroke in 1:04.94, then Jon Lowrance won the 100 breast in 1:11.44 and the 400 relay team of Andrew Moreton, Lowrance, Gabe Austin and Tingle took first in 4:08.25

"We're 0-2 on the year but we saw some improvement," said Central coach Dayna Powell. "We wanted to score 55 and we wanted to win an event. The good news is we think we can be back in The Bubble Monday."

Kirkwood 126, Cape Central 59

2. Medley Relay 159.00 Moreton, Stratton Tingle, Lowrance, Austin

200 freestyle

3. Andrew Moreton 2:12.84

200 IM

3. Tingle 2:20.31

50 freestyle

2. Gabe Austin 26.31

Diving

3. Justin Hawkins 134.95

100 free

3. Moreton 59.53

200 relay (Warren Williams, Justin Hawkins, Stephen Stahr, Tony Kiel)

3. 204.34

Backstroke

1. Tingle 1:04.94 first win of the season and after we kept winning

100 breast

1. Jon Lowrance 1:11.44

400 free relay (Moreton, Lowrance, Austin, Tingle)

4:08.25