Saxony girls basketball team routs Oran, advances to Delta championship

DELTA, Mo. -- Top-seeded Saxony Lutheran cruised to an easy win over Oran behind a strong performance from Raegan Wieser and an even stronger defense on Wednesday night.

The junior scored a game-high 18 points, shot 69 percent from the field (9 of 13) and had eight steals to help the Crusaders maintain their unblemished record in a 60-24 victory over the No. 4 Eagles in a Delta New Year's Tournament semifinal.

"Raegan was good when she had to be good, but as a team, we didn't shoot the ball very well most of the night," Saxony coach Sam Sides said. "So we had to go to our defense for stops. We've been playing pretty solid defense most of the time. We try to help each other play that team defense. The first part of the game I thought we got out of position at times and they hurt us, but after that we played pretty good. Even when we weren't shooting so well in the first half, our defense would get them to turn the ball over and we got some break away layups and stuff like that and we got some good penetration, but we didn't shoot the ball very good at all."

Saxony (12-0), which never trailed against Oran (6-2), didn't need to rely on setting up a play or running its offense for most of the game.

The Crusaders forced 31 turnovers and converted 38 points off of Oran turnovers.

Saxony opened the game with a 12-2 run and led 14-4 at the end of the first quarter.

A 13-6 run in the second gave the Crusaders a 27-10 advantage at halftime.

Oran turned the ball over 15 times in the first half. Oran coach Ethan Evans said missed shots and turnovers hurt his team throughout the game against the much more experienced Crusaders.

Oran's Allison Cummins drives against Saxony Lutheran's Grace Mirly in the second quarter of a championship semifinal at the Delta New Year's Tournament Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2015 in Delta, Missouri. (Glenn Landberg)

"Any time you play Saxony, you always try to look for moral victories," Evans said. "Missed shots and turnovers are exactly what did it to us. I just told the girls while ago, even when you do get an open shot against them it's like you kind of freak out and rush yourself. It's a tough team, it's a loss, but it's one that we can try to learn from."

Saxony had its best quarter of shooting in the third when it scored 17 points and only missed three shots from the field and two free throws.

Wieser scored eight of her points in the third and hauled in six total rebounds.

Grace Mirly added nine points in the win, while Ali Galemmo scored seven.

Oran will play Meadow Heights in the third-place game at 6:30 p.m. today.

Ashlyn McIntosh led Oran with 10 points and Hannah Scherer added six.

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

"Like I tell them before every game, we've got to be ready to go," Sides said. "If we're ready to go, it should be a good game for us. We're pretty athletic, we've got a lot of experienced good ball players. We've just got to come ready to play, don't take anything for granted and just help each other. If we play solid, we'll be hard to beat."

Oran 4 6 6 8 -- 24

Saxony 14 13 17 16 -- 60

ORAN (24) -- Ashlyn McIntosh 10, Hannah Scherer 6, Allison Cummins 4, Brianna Stause 2, Tatum May 2. FG 12, FT 0-6, F 15. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: May.)

SAXONY (60) -- Raegan Wieser 18, Grace Mirly 9, Ali Galemmo 7, Brianna Mueller 6, Masyn McWilliams 5, Maddie Brune 4, Courtney Kester 4, Tess Daniel 3. FG 23, FT 14-24, F 11. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none.)