Meadow Heights girls basketball team falls to Puxico in Delta semifinal

DELTA, Mo. -- In a game that featured 13 lead changes in the first half, the third-seeded Meadow Heights girls basketball team felt good going into halftime down by just six points against No. 2 Puxico.

However, a bad shooting performance and a failure to stop the Indians 9-3 run to start the second half led to a 57-50 loss for the Panthers in a Delta New Year's Tournament semifinal on Wednesday night.

"I really felt like the other team just started making their shots, and we really stopped taking and hitting good shots," Meadow Heights coach Rhonda Miller said. "We had focused on guarding the post players, who I felt like were the biggest threat, but then all of the sudden even the post players were hitting 3s on the outside and just everything they shot was going up and in. I think they even shot a granny shot that went through."

The two teams stayed within one point of each other until a layup by Puxico's Gabby Clark followed by two free throws gave the Indians a 21-18 lead with 2 minutes, 40 seconds to play in the second quarter.

Meadow Heights hit a free throw one minute later, but Kaytlyn Haynes and Faith Oliver responded with two straight buckets to give Puxico a 25-19 lead at the break.

"We just had to stick to our game plan and chip away in the second half," Puxico coach Jordan Lindsay said. "We knew Meadow Heights was going to be tough. They are some hustlers and they don't give up, so we knew it would be important to stick to our gameplan, which was to get the ball in the paint when we could and look for the open shot outside. We talked about taking some time, getting a few better looks and some better ball reversal and that made a huge difference for us."

Puxico came out hot in the third quarter, outscoring Meadow Heights 22-12, which was capped off by three 3-pointers to end the quarter.

Meadow Heights fell behind by as many as 13 points at 53-40 in the fourth quarter with 4:05 to play.

Puxico's Kaytlynn Haynes gets a shot off in the first quarter against Meadow Heights during a championship semifinal at the Delta New Year's Tournament Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 in Delta, Missouri. (Glenn Landberg)

The Panthers tried to make a come back when Kiana Hotop and Emma Cook hit back-to-back 3s with 2:17 to play, but it was not enough to overcome the Indians.

Miller said her players stopped waiting for good looks and rushed many of their shots in the second half.

Despite the loss, Miller was happy to see two of her top players score in double figures for the Panthers.

Hotop scored a game-high 22 points and Cook added 16, but the rest of the bench combined for just 11 points.

"We still had our two high scorers in Kiana and Emma, but the main difference from tonight and Monday night was that we had four girls score double digits and tonight we only had two," Miller said. "For some reason we only have a couple players that wouldn't put the ball up very much. But on the other end, we've really been stressing putting the ball inside and we did do that a lot better tonight."

Haynes had 20 points to lead Puxico and Oliver chipped in 16 more in the win.

The Indians will play Saxony for the championship at 8 p.m. today.

Meadow Heights falls to the third-place game where it will face Oran at 6:30 p.m. today.

"I feel like we should probably be able to work our inside game a little better against them," Miller said. "They're still quick, so we'll probably still have a hard time shooting from the outside I would think, but we'll just try to play our game."

M. Heights 13 6 12 19 -- 50

Puxico 12 13 22 10 -- 57

MEADOW HEIGHTS (50) -- Kiana Hotop 22, Emma Cook 17, Abi Bristow 4, Alaina Lochirco 2, Samantha Miles 2, Jacyee Whitener 2, Jacque Starkey 1. FG 18, FT 9-21, F 18. (3-pointers: Cook 3, Hotop 2. Fouled out: none.)

PUXICO (57) -- Kaytlynn Haynes 20, Faith Oliver 16, Katelyn Pierre 10, Gabby Clark 4, Victoria Burch 4, Brenna Hancock 3. FG 26, FT 5-13, F 13. (3-pointers: Oliver 2, Haynes 2. Fouled out: none.)