Kelso Supply Holiday Tournament: Lady Bulldogs fall in lopsided semifinal against Saxony

Thursday, December 19, 2013
Sikeston's Tyra Bonner defends a Saxony Lutheran ball handler on Wednesday during the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic Tournament semifinals at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. (Brent Shipman photo)

sports@standard-democrat.com

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Having already seen top-seeded Saxony Lutheran once this season, in a 26-point loss, the fourth-seeded Sikeston Lady Bulldogs were well aware of the test faced in Wednesday's semifinal matchup at the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic.

Unfortunately for the Lady Bulldogs, that didn't seem to matter as the state-ranked Lady Crusaders cruised to a 60-19 win that puts them back in the championship game.

Sikeston's Erica Peet (24) tries to break free of Saxony Lutheran's Maddie Brune (41) for a pass during the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic Tournament semifinals at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. (Brent Shipman photo)

"Obviously we got out-executed," Sikeston head coach Matt Schonhoff said. "They did some different things than the first time we played them a couple weeks ago and it caught us off guard a little bit.

"They did a very good job of forcing some things and we allowed them to do it."

Much like their last meeting it was a slow start that doomed the Lady Bulldogs from nearly the beginning. Sikeston was held without a field goal the entire first quarter as the defending tournament champs rolled to an 18-1 lead after the first quarter.

Saxony, who is currently ranked eighth in Class 3 in the MBCA/Mosports.com basketball poll, was held to just a 6-1 lead after five minutes of play. By scoring 12-straight points in the final 2:31 of the period, however, they grabbed a 17-point edge.

It was in the second period that the Lady Bulldogs started to find some traction thanks to the play of senior Mikala Nichols. With her team now down by 18, Nichols hit a short jumper in the paint 30 seconds into the frame and led her team on a 7-5 run.

Despite Nichols' nine points in the frame, including all four of Sikeston's field goals, the Lady Bulldogs were outpaced 20-10 to enter halftime down 27 points.

"Mikala tried to bring us back in the second quarter," Schonhoff said. "She had a nice little stretch there, but overall we have to have a team effort to score and be aggressive on the offensive end. I thought we were too timid."

Sikeston senior Mikala Nichols (22) puts up a shot over a Saxony Lutheran defender Wednesday during the Kelso Supply Holiday Classic Tournament semifinals at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau. (Brent Shipman photo)

Not helping matters was the fact Nichols took a hard foul late in the second quarter, forcing her to play, sparingly, through the pain most of the second half.

Saxony came out of the break once again on the attack, scoring eight unanswered in the first four minutes of the third quarter.

With 3:45 left in the third Tyra Bonner hit a short jumper to break up the Lady Crusaders streak and become the first player beside Nichols with a basket.

Though Saxony led by as many as 35 points midway through the third, it was Bonner's basket and another by Miranda Harrison on a 4-1 Sikeston run that kept the turbo-clock out of effect entering the fourth.

Only 30 seconds into the final period Raegan Wieser pushed the Lady Crusaders out by 36-points and they'd extend their lead to as many as 41 points to close out the win.

"We talk to them about slow starts," Schonhoff said. "Especially against team that are as good as Saxony, who are state ranked, and have the players they have. We talk about coming out fast and being aggressive, but they were the aggressive one and got us on our heels. We couldn't recover."

Leading the Lady Bulldogs' effort was Nichols, who scored all of her nine points in the second quarter. Mitchell finished second on the team with five points.

For Saxony, Grace Mirly had a game-high 18 points while Brianna Mueller and Wieser had 13 and 10 points respectively.

With the loss Sikeston drops to 2-3 on the season and will play the Jackson Lady Indians, who lost to Notre Dame in the other semifinal, tonight for third-place at 7 p.m. with Saxony going for their second-straight championship directly after against Notre Dame.

Both games will take place at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.

Sikeston11044--19
Saxony18201111--60

SIKESTON (19) -- Mikala Nichols 9, Tyra Bonner 2, Miranda Harrison 2, Teshia Mitchell 5, Alana Basham 1. FG 8, FT 3-6, F 12. (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: none.)

SAXONY (60) -- Grace Mirly 18, Jordan Hecht 2, Ali Galemmo 2, Brianna Mueller 13, Tess Daniel 8, Ashlynn Collier 4, Raegan Wieser 10, Maddie Brune 3. FG 25, FT 7-13, F 9. (3-pointers: Mirly 2, Mueller 1. Fouled out: none.)

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: