Scott City girls basketball team loses in district semifinals

PARK HILLS, Mo. -- The lull came at a horrible time.

Scott City failed to hit a field goal in the third quarter, which allowed top-seeded West County to pull away Monday. The host Bulldogs outscored the Rams by 15 points in the quarter and rolled to a 56-30 victory in a Class 3 District 3 semifinal.

"We've went through that quite a bit this year," Scott City coach Ricky Keller said. "We've had great quarters and we've had terrible ones. Just hate to have that bad one here."

Scott City went 0 for 4 from the field and committed six turnovers in the third quarter.

"They were just playing really good defense," Scott City senior Andrea Gray said. "They're fundamentally sound and they're quick and they just got into the passing lanes and kind of jumbled us up a little bit."

Scott City's offense struggled most of the night. The Rams only shot 19 percent (9 of 48) from the field.

West County focused its defensive effort on stopping Scott City senior Katie Hogan. The Bulldogs had one player in front of Hogan and another behind her.

"We really wanted to stop [Hogan] because we knew she was their best scorer," West County senior Katie Gettinger said. "If she gets the ball, she's going to make it most likely. We all played well as a team. ... Just keep an eye on the other players because they can all shoot good."

Hogan scored a team-high 10 points, but she found little room to operate near the basket because of the constant double-teams.

"They just pressured the ball real well," Hogan said. "And they did a box-and-one on us. Whenever I'd go in the post, they'd double-team me. We just couldn't create penetration. Their defense was killing us."

Keller said the defense wasn't anything the Rams hadn't faced this season.

"They were just double-teaming her and pushing her out all night," he said. "We just didn't get very many opportunities to get it to her."

Scott City (16-10) stayed with West County (23-3) for much of the first half. The Rams used an 11-4 run late in the second quarter to trim the Bulldogs' lead and entered halftime only down seven points.

But the third-quarter struggles buried the Rams.

"We just started to put intensity up at the end of the second quarter," Gray said. "Once they scored, the momentum changed and we couldn't get that intensity and momentum back on our side."

Gettinger played a big role in taming the Rams. She scored a game-high 22 points, including eight in the third quarter. She drained four 3-pointers in the contest.

"Lots of screens," she said about the key to her team's offensive success. "We wanted to get layups, but if we couldn't get it, the 3 was open a lot. We got those a lot."

West County finished shooting 43 percent from the field (16 of 37). It advanced to face seventh-seeded Saxony Lutheran in Thursday's 6 p.m. district title game.

Scott City 8 11 2 9 -- 30

West County 13 13 17 13 -- 56

SCOTT CITY (30) -- Andrea Gray 3, Alicia Kern 9, Katie Hogan 10, Lyndsie Robert 4, Katie Rhymer 2, Brittany Kiefer 2. FG 9, FT 7-14, F 18. (3-pointers: Hogan 2, Gray 1. Fouled out: Kern)

WEST COUNTY (56) -- Katie Gettinger 22, Lauren Callahan 2, Paige Forshee 8, Courtney Richards 16, Tiffanie Jones 2, Sidney Wells 6. FG 16, FT 17-23, F 15. (3-pointers: Gettinger 4, Richards 3. Fouled out: none)