Panthers take on Bismarck in Class 2 sectional

~ Meadow Heights girls cross paths again with Southeast recruit Brooke Taylor

If there is a team out there that knows the capabilities of Southeast Missouri State recruit Brooke Taylor, it's the Meadow Heights Panthers.

Taylor scored 40 points as Bismarck played the Panthers in a sectional game last year, and the two teams meet again tonight in a Class 2 sectional game at Park Hills Central High School. Game time is 6 p.m.

"I don't think we've seen anybody better than that this year," said Meadow Heights coach Mitch Nanney, whose fifth-year program enters with a 19-8 record. "We've seen some decent players throughout the year, but none of them have her scoring capabilities."

In fact, Nanney thinks so highly of Taylor that he's enrolled the help of one of the varsity boys players to simulate her in practice.

Taylor, a 6-foot-1 guard/forward for Bismarck (23-3), averages a double-double as she scores around 24 points a game and pulls down more than 10 rebounds per contest. Taylor, who was a McDonald's All-American nominee, recently scored her 2,500th career point. As a junior, Taylor averaged 32.4 points and 13.6 rebounds.

Despite Taylor's 40 points, Meadow Heights managed to prevail last season as it advanced to the quarterfinals with a 74-70 victory. The way last year's game played out serves as somewhat of a blueprint and source of hope as the Panthers prepare for the second encounter.

"I think the key, kind of like last year, she's going to get her points, we've got to kind of control everyone else on the floor," Nanney said. "Everything we've seen on tape, they generally play five players with a couple of kids that come off the bench that give them a couple of minutes here or there, but they're not real deep."

While Bismarck lost three starters from last year's team, it does return 6-1 sophomore center Brettnie Henson, who came off the bench last season. Henson is second on the Indians in scoring at around 12 points a game and, like Taylor, shoots better than 50 percent from the field. Henson leads the team in blocks and is second in rebounding.

Point guard Torrie Helms, a returning starter, adds about 10 points for a Bismarck team that prefers a half-court game.

Meadow Heights will counter with a balanced attack that has been boosted by the addition of sophomore Whitney Welker, who recently returned from offseason knee surgery. Welker scored 24 points and grabbed 22 rebounds in last year's game against Bismarck and was expected to be the Panthers' premiere player this season. She tore an ACL last summer and missed the bulk of the season while rehabbing. She rejoined the team five games ago -- all Panther victories -- and has averaged around 10 points.

"She's fit in real well with what we had been trying to do," Nanney said. "It just helped our team immensely, and I hate to say that about an injury, but it really helped our team grow as a team -- not just to depend individually sometimes, but depend upon ourselves as a team to get the job done."

As a result, Meadow Heights has six players that average between eight and 11.5 points a game.

Junior forward Heather Dietiker, sophomore guard Erin Bollman and junior guard Hattie Cook all average around 11 points. Welker, Bollman and Mills each have been averaging between eight and 10 rebounds.

"We've been playing 10 to 11 every night out, and we hope that wears them down as we go along," Nanney said. "We want to push the ball against them."

Tonight's winner advances to Saturday's 1 p.m. quarterfinal game at Poplar Bluff High School against the winner of a sectional game between Neelyville (26-1) and Thayer (25-3).