Delta, Scott City grab first-day wins

~Fast start paces Lady Bobcats in win over Charleston

SIKESTON--The Scott-Miss Tournament got underway on Monday evening, as the Delta Lady Bobcats and the Scott City Lady Rams each notched victories in girls varsity action.

In the first varsity match-up of the evening, the No. 8 seed Charleston Lady Bluejays had to play catch-up for four quarters, as No. 1 seed Delta proved to be too much, cruising to victory by a score of 47-28.

The score going into half-time was 23-11 in favor of the Lady Bobcats.

Charleston fell behind early, but as the fourth quarter neared, the defense stepped it up a level and put pretty good pressure on the tough Delta offense. The Lady Bluejays slowly began chipping away at the lead, but couldn't put together a long enough run to climb the hill.

Despite the loss, Charleston head coach Michael Minner came away with some high points from the game.

"I thought we played hard," Minner said. "We did a pretty good job on the boards. At times, we got to where we were standing still, but we stepped up finally and hit a few shots today."

Minner went on to say how proud of his team he was for not giving up towards the end of the game.

"Delta's a great team," Minner said. "To stay within 20 (points), we're really excited. We're going to keep working and keep trying to get better."

The Lady Bluejays were led by Jerquawnda Sherrell, who scored 13 points, including three 3-pointers.

Casara Carter and Cedrica Rodgers each hit one 3-pointer apiece for Charleston.

"We've been working a lot in practice on shooting the ball," Minner said. "We feel like if we just knock down some open shots then we can give ourself a chance. We had more positives than negatives today, so at the end of the day we're excited and proud of our kids."

For the Lady Bobcats, Sara Blattel scored a game-high 22 points in the win, on 10 field goals and 2-for-2 shooting at the free-throw line.

Delta now advances to face Scott City on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Scott City 49, Scott Central 45

In the second varsity contest of the evening, the No. 4 seed Scott City Lady Rams defeated the host-team No. 5 seed Scott Central Bravettes by a score of 49-44.

The game was a close battle early, as Scott Central held the lead after one quarter of play, 9-6, but Scott City went on to outscore the Bravettes 17-6 in the second quarter to boast a 23-15 lead at half-time.

In the second half, Scott Central mounted a comeback, and actually put up more points in the third quarter, 16, to the Lady Rams' 14, to pull within six points of the lead.

The closest that the Bravettes would get to catching the leader, was four points, just minutes into the fourth quarter.

Scott City guard Becky Holder took over the fourth quarter, scoring five of her 13 total points, to hold off the scoring run of Scott Central. Holder was 3-

for-5 at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter.

Emily Essner scored the team-high for the Lady Rams, with 14 points, on 6 field goals, including two 3-pointers.

The win advances Scott City to a second round match-up with Delta on Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m. The winner of that game advances to Saturday's championship game, which is scheduled for 4:30 p.m., while the loser will play in the third place game on Saturday, at 3 p.m.

In junior varsity action, the Oran Lady Eagles flew by the Kelly Lady Hawks in a 41-18 win.

The Lady Eagles led by 10 at half-time, and put up 10 points in each of the next two quarters, outscoring the Lady Hawks 20-7 in the second half.

Kelly's leading scorer was Kayla Hicks, who scored 10 points in the loss.

Oran saw impressive performances from Haley Glastetter and Taylor Irwin in the victory, as both girls scored 10 points apiece to help guide the Lady Eagles to the win.

The victory seals a second round spot for the No. 5 seed Oran, where they will face the No. 1 seed Delta Lady Bobcats' junior varsity squad on Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m.