Leopold boys basketball team clinches spot in title game with win vs. Zalma

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- The Leopold Wildcats had to accomplish a feat for a third time this season to get a shot at a first in school history.

Leopold gave itself a shot at it first basketball district title with its third victory of the season against Zalma, this time in the Class 1 District 3 semifinals Monday night at Poplar Bluff High School

Sophomore Kyle Stroder scored a game-high 24 points to lead Leopold to a 69-58 victory and into Wednesday's championship game against South Iron.

Second-seeded Leopold (21-6) was able to avoid the upset that top-seeded Summersville could not sidestep. Fourth-seeded South Iron (9-7) reached the 7:30 p.m. championship game with a 58-53 upset of Summersville.

"We've never won a district championship, and I've never seen one," said Leopold senior Lance Seiler, who finished with eight points and 10 rebounds. "Our goal all year has been to just get past districts."

Leopold coach Shawn Kinder has won 20 games with his teams in each of his three years at the school and was optimistic for new ground to be broken this year with three experienced players in the starting lineup.

"Coming into tonight, I felt good about it," Kinder said. "We had beaten Zalma twice earlier this season, but it's hard to beat a good team three times throughout the course of the season, especially when they're well coached."

Leopold never trailed in the game and attacked the inside against the shorter Bulldogs, who didn't have a starter taller than 5 foot 11.

"Coach really wanted us to get the ball inside and really establish the post game from the very beginning," Stroder said.

An interior basket by the 6-2 Seiler gave Leopold the lead for good at 4-2 with 5 minutes, 34 seconds left in the first quarter. He fed 6-5 sophomore Brandon Jansen for a basket the next trip down the floor in part of a 6-0 burst.

"We sort of had a height advantage," Seiler said. "We've been planning to [go inside] a little bit through the whole tournament because there's really not a big, tall kid in the tournament."

Leopold took a 13-9 lead into the second quarter despite a scoreless period from Stroder, a 6-4 sophomore.

Stroder corrected that in the second quarter, scoring nine of Leopold's 15 points. The Wildcats led 22-19 with 3:03 left in the half when Stroder scored inside to spark a 6-0 run that bumped the lead to 28-19.

Zalma, which was 1 of 8 on 3-point attempts in the first half, cut the deficit to 28-21 at halftime.

Leopold pushed its lead to double figures for the first time in the opening minute of the second half. Stroder, who added 13 points in the third quarter, scored inside at the 7:01 mark to up the lead to 32-21.

Leopold led 56-42 with 3:52 left in the game when Zalma belatedly began to find its range from beyond the arc.

Zalma hit four 3-pointers in the final 3:36 of the game. The Bulldogs were able to close the gap to six point, 59-53, with just more than two minutes left, but they got no closer.

Zalma senior Stephen Simmers had three 3-pointers in the final minutes. He scored 13 of his team-high 23 points in the fourth quarter.

Simmers found little consolation in his hot finish.

"I should have been hitting them the whole game," he said.

Simmers and Stotts said the Bulldogs rebounded better in the third meeting, a focal point entering the game.

"We knew what we'd be up against," said Stotts, who added 19 points. "We played them two times before."

The game was the final one for Zalma coach Steve Wells, who is retiring after 30 years of coaching. He spent the last four with the Bulldogs.

"I don't think a lot of people would of thought we'd finish 17-8 this year," Wells said. "The kids worked awfully hard. We placed second in our conference at 6-1."

Stroder added 12 rebounds to finish with a double-double for Leopold, which will go into the final as the higher seed.

"I'm real excited," Stroder said. "I think we'll do good. I think we have a really good chance of winning. We all just have to play hard."

Zalma 9 12 15 22 -- 58

Leopold 13 15 21 20 -- 69

ZALMA (58) -- Floris De Jongh 3, Gage Lemons 5, Stephen Simmers 23, Austin Sitze 8, Justin Stotts 19. FG 21, FT 10-12, F 16. (3-pointers: Simmers 3, Sitze 2, Stotts 1. Fouled out: none)

LEOPOLD (69) -- John Bohnsack 11, Cameron Davis 7, Gregg Davis 7, Joseph Eftink 4, Brandon Jansen 8, Lance Seiler 8, Kyle Stroder 24. FG: 26, FT 15-18, F 11. (3-pointers: Bohnsack 1, Stroder 1. Fouled out: none)