Meadow Heights girls basketball team sizzles early against St. Vincent

PATTON, Mo. -- Fifteen minutes before the Meadow Heights girls basketball team took the floor against St. Vincent on Monday night, seniors Kiana Hotop and Emma Cook sensed they were going to have a big game for the Panthers.

A lifelong friendship and years of playing basketball together has the two players feeding off one another on the court.

"The beginning of the game I just felt it. In warmups I could tell, and she [Hotop] knew, too," Cook said. "Kiana and I have been playing together since freshman year, so when one of us is having an 'on' night we really try to feed each other from the 3-point line."

Cook accounted for Meadow Heights' first six points of the game, both 3-pointers, and Hotop led the Panthers with 15 points in a 50-39 win over St. Vincent at Meadow Heights High School.

The Panthers were coming off a tough five-point loss to Perryville and were hungry for a win against the Indians.

"They beat a team we lost to by five last week, and they beat them very well, so this gives us a lot of confidence," Meadow Heights coach Rhonda Miller said after the win over St. Vincent, a team she said beat her squad by four points last season. "Right from the start they passed the ball very well, and Abi Bristow played great defense and grabbed rebounds for us all night."

Bristow pulled down 12 rebounds and netted 11 points.

Meadow Heights (2-5) stayed within two points of St. Vincent in the first three minutes of the first quarter and hit 6-of-6 shots from behind the 3-point line in the quarter.

After Cook's two 3-pointers, the Panthers went on a 15- 7 run to close out the first quarter with a 21-11 lead. Cook sank a jump-shot with two minutes, 46 seconds remaining in the first, before Abi Bristow hit a 3 on the Panthers' next possession with 48 seconds to play in the opening quarter.

With 29 seconds left, Kylee Whitener hit another 3-pointer from the right side of the court, and Bristow knocked down another 3 as time expired in the first quarter.

Miller said she doesn't prefer to have her team come out and shoot 3-pointers right away

"It isn't really my focus, but it seems to be the girls' focus," Miller said. "They've been warned to not come out and shoot the 3. They had to make a two first, but Kristi Bristow really stepped it up big for us tonight."

St. Vincent (3-5) hit just 3 of 20 shots from the field and added five free throws in the first quarter.

St. Vincent coach Chad Unterreiner said he liked the shots his players were taking.

"We got the looks we wanted. We just didn't finish very well tonight," Unterreiner said. "As far as our looks, we were getting the 10 to 12 foot jump-shot that we wanted and our layups. We just couldn't finish tonight."

St. Vincent scored the first two points of the second quarter, but Meadow Heights put together an 8-0 run and took a 29-15 lead into halftime. It was the Indians' largest lead of the game.

Cook led all scorers with 12 points at the break and said the Panthers were feeling better than they had all season at that point.

"Going into the game we were coming off a hard loss, and we knew going into the Christmas tournament we really needed to execute this game. So the lead *... It was feeling pretty nice," Cook said.

St. Vincent outscored Meadow Heights 14-8, thanks to a 9-3 run midway through the quarter to make it 39-29, but that the Indians could never cut the lead to under 10 points for the rest of the game.

"We gave a valiant effort," Unterreiner said. "We came back, we fought back and we played hard. We're 3-5 on the year, and they've played hard in every one of them. It's just one of those things where when we learn how to finish, we're going to be a team to beat. Both teams played hard, but they were the better one tonight."

Faith Kapp led the Indians with 12 points.

Hotop said the Panthers' offense was running a lot better than it had been for most of the season.

"We always have problems with finding our offense," Hotop said. "I can kind of see when I get down the court, who's on fire and who's not, so I make sure I'm feeding it the people who are on so we can score."

Hotop scored nine of her 15 points in the fourth quarter, most of which came down the stretch from the free-throw line.

The senior was fouled six times in the final two minutes and was seven of 12 from the charity stripe.

Cook said the Panthers don't rely on one player, and it's something the Panthers take pride in and hope brings success for the remainder of the season.

"That's how it's always been. Some person may start off really hot, but at the end of the game, point-wise we're all pretty even and that's just how it's been. It works," Cook said.

St. Vincent 11 4 14 9 -- 39

Meadow Heights 21 8 12 10 -- 50

ST. VINCENT (39) -- Faith Kapp 12, Kayla Winkler 8, Emma Janet 7, Courtney Brown 4, Kylie Baer 2, Alexana Koisher 2. FG 14 FT 11-23, F 16. (3-pointers: none, Fouled out: none)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (50) -- Kiana Hotop 15, Abi Bristow 11, Emma Cook 10, Kylee Whitener 8, Sammantha Miles 2, Jaycee Whitener 2, Alaina Lochirco 2 FG 17, FT 10-21, F 15. (3-pointers: Bristow 3, Cook 2, Whitener 1, Fouled out: Bristow)

JV -- Meadow Heights won 34-32