Meadow Heights girls throw 24-0 run at St. Vincent

~ Meadow Heights turned a tight game into a 67-31 rout of St. Vincent in a matter of minutes

PATTON, Mo. -- St. Vincent leaned on back-to-back steals to close within six points in the second quarter.

Meadow Heights decided that was close enough.

The Panthers scored the next 24 points to erase any doubt and cruise to a 67-31 victory in girls basketball action Monday.

"Our momentum picked up and we just settled down and thought, 'Hey, we really need to make a statement tonight, and we need to make it now,'" Meadow Heights junior Whitney Welker said.

The Indians (4-3) scored seven points in just more than 30 seconds to put a little scare into Meadow Heights. But the Indians' offense hibernated for the remainder of the second quarter. St. Vincent failed to hit any of its four shots over the final 5 minutes, 53 seconds of the second quarter, while Meadow Heights hit for 15 points over that span.

"Better execution, better on the defensive end," Meadow Heights coach Mitch Nanney said about the key to the run. "Defensively, we weren't bad in the first half, but we got a lot worse in the second half unfortunately. This is our third game in four days."

St. Vincent, which was missing an injured Chelsie Boxdorfer, turned over the ball 10 times in the second quarter. The Indians finished with 29 turnovers, while the Panthers committed 23.

"They just play very good defense and we probably haven't seen as good a defense," Indians coach Terry Wengert said. "We became tentative, and then when we really went to the basket and went after it, we did things right. We had some things that didn't fall. We didn't have real good luck with that."

St. Vincent's woes continued into the third quarter. Meadow Heights, which has reached the Class 2 state quarterfinals the past two seasons, scored the first nine points after intermission to open a 30-point lead.

The Panthers (5-1) leaned on a lethal dose of inside and outside scoring to fuel the run. Senior Heather Dietiker scored 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, during the Panthers' 24-0 run. She finished with five 3s in the contest, including a few from well behind the arc.

"I think my coach has made me comfortable about it because he always said it doesn't matter where you are on the floor, shoot it if you're comfortable," she said. "I didn't realize where I was, but I felt comfortable."

Nanney said he encourages his players to take open shots if they feel they can make it.

"Shoot wherever you're open at," he said. "Whatever you feel comfortable with."

The outside shooting helped open the post for Welker. The 5-foot-9 forward scored a game-high 22 points by muscling her way to the basket. She shot 71 percent (10 of 14) from the floor.

"I just kept cutting through the lane and looking for open gaps," said Welker, who added six rebounds. "My teammates, they were really good looking for me tonight and then knew when to get you the ball."

Welker missed most of last season after tearing her ACL, but she showed no aftereffects during Monday's game.

"When I'm on the court, I don't think about it at all," she said. "It's like that's in the past and I'm just happy to be playing again."

Dietiker, who finished with 20 points, said she knows the offense is at its best when she's hitting from outside and Welker's converting near the basket.

"Whenever outside is hitting and the defense sucks up, Whitney's open," she said. "Whenever they step down on her, then the outside's open. It's important for us to be on our game shooting-wise."

Erin Bollmann finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and five steals, while Gina Cureton dished out eight assists for the Panthers, who enjoy a week off before playing in the girls holiday tournament Monday at the Show Me Center.

St. Vincent 4 9 8 10 -- 31

Meadow Hts 14 20 13 20 -- 67

ST. VINCENT (31) -- Courtney Heberlie 7, Kayla Seabaugh 3, Storm French 8, Kelci Besand 2, Kali Wingerter 11. FG 14, FT 2-5, F 10. (3-pointers: Heberlie 1. Fouled out: none)

MEADOW HEIGHTS (67) -- Hattie Cook 8, Erin Bollmann 12, Heather Dietiker 20, Whitney Welker 22, Jillian Mills 5. FG 26, FT 8-12, F 8. (3-pointers: Dietiker 5, Cook 2. Fouled out: none)