Meadow Heights girls basketball team defeats St. Vincent 61-40

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Meadow Heights senior Taylor Cureton noticed a pattern in the St. Vincent girls basketball team's offense.

"They kept coming down and passing to the same spot every time," Cureton said. "So I just stepped up and read it and took off with it."

Cureton did that twice near mid-court during the final 30 seconds of the second quarter to help the Panthers turn what had been a five-point lead two minutes earlier into an 11-point halftime cushion.

Meadow Heights went on to a 61-40 road victory against the Indians on Monday night.

"Any time we get a double-digit lead, it's really big, particularly against a team that's playing a zone," Meadow Heights coach Mark Verticchio said. "I told the girls if this is going to get close, we're going to make them play man."

Meadow Heights' Erin Bollmann takes a shot over St. Vincent's Katie Mattingly during the third quarter Monday in Perryville, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

That wasn't necessary. St. Vincent never got within single digits again.

Meadow Heights scored the first six points of the third quarter and spent most of the second half slowly distancing itself from the Indians.

"Turnovers killed us," St. Vincent coach Terry Wengert said. "We made some critical turnovers at a critical time in the game. We were tied or a couple down, and then all of the sudden we were 11 down at half. That might have been fatigue, but that's part of learning and growing as a team."

Meadow Heights scored just once after eight turnovers in the first quarter, and led just 14-12 at the end of the period.

"Basically he screamed at us and told us, 'What are you doing?'" said senior Erin Bollman about Verticchio. "And we finally said, 'OK, we need to make some shots.' And finally they kept falling, and we kept shooting and we got ahead."

Meadow Heights' Whitney Welker tries to block a shot by St. Vincent's Katie Mattingly during the second quarter.

The Panthers scored after six of the seven turnovers they caused in the second quarter, including baskets after both of Cureton's steals just before halftime.

"To turn our turnovers into points, all we did was pretty much use personalities, like who to pass to," Cureton said. "We just pretty much passed it to Erin [Bollman] and Whitney [Welker] and ended up getting Erin and Whitney their points."

Bollman finished with 32 points and nine rebounds, while Welker had 19 points and 10 rebounds.

"We convert very well," Verticchio said. "Erin's a one-man running show down there. She gets the ball out and she's gone."

Cureton said Bollman and Welker provide their teammates with confidence.

St. Vincent's Kayla Seabaugh shoots over Meadow Heights' Lauren Bess during the second quarter Monday in Perryville, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

"It helps the team a lot just because they've had so much more experience than us," Cureton said. "They're confident with the ball, and every time we give them the ball they make it, so we're confident. And if Erin misses it, she gets the rebound and puts it right back up."

The victory was the third for Meadow Heights in four days.

"That's a nice win for us," Verticchio said. "We're gassed. We went to North County Friday. We went to Clearwater Saturday, and we came here for three out of four. We're tired. We're 6-1 and we haven't played at home yet. What's amazing is 19 of our first 21 games are on the road."

While the game was an endurance test for the Panthers, it was a measuring stick for St. Vincent.

"We just talked about going out and playing hard and playing with confidence and giving them a good game," Wengert said. "We know that they're a very, very, very good ballclub, and we wanted to see where we stacked up and what we could do against that type of team."

Meadow Heights' Whitney Welker shoots while being defended by St. Vincent's Courtney Heberlie during the third quarter.

Courtney Heberlie made five 3-pointers and finished with 15 points to lead St. Vincent, while sophomore Katie Mattingly had 13.

The Indians (5-2) did not score in the first quarter in a lopsided loss to Meadow Heights in a state sectional last season.

"I was proud of the girls," Wengert said. "They did a lot of things right. We know where we are and where we need to go. We are a work in progress this year. We've got some younger kids and we're learning."

Meadow Heights 14 18 17 12 -- 61

St. Vincent 12 9 11 8 -- 40

MEADOW HEIGHTS (61) -- Makayla McGruder 1, Caitlin Cook 1, Erin Bollmann 32, Whitney Welker 19, Heather Baremore 2, Taylor Cureton 1. FG 27, FT 6-12, F 9. (3-pointers: Welker 1. Fouled out: none)

ST. VINCENT (40) -- Courtney Heberlie 15, Kelly Welker 4, Kayla Seabaugh 8, Katie Mattingly 13. FG 17, FT 1-6, F 11. (3-pointers: Heberlie 5. Fouled out: none)