Boonville Rolls to Centralia Tournament Title

The Boonville Lady Pirates capped a dominant run in the 2019 Centralia Girls Basketball Tournament with a 65-42 victory over Macon in Friday night’s championship game. Meanwhile, Salisbury and Centralia claimed third and fifth place trophies respectively on the night.

Boonville used a disruptive press and a quick transition game to grab control against the Macon Tigerettes in the late stages of the first quarter. The biggest basket came at the very end of the quarter courtesy of Addison Brownfield.

Brownfield finished the game with 18 points. She was joined in double figures by Jodie Bass with 22 points and Kourtney Kendrick with 19. Boonville built up a 36-16 advantage at halftime, which represented a deficit Macon would never recover from. Kate Hawkins led Macon with 13 points in one of the few bright spots on the night. Macon head coach Richard Driscoll said his team’s transition defense was the biggest issue of the night.

Boonville’s 23-point championship victory marked their closest game in the Centralia Tournament. The Lady Pirates improve to 5-1 on the season while Macon falls to 4-2. In the third place game, the Salisbury Lady Panthers scored early and often in a 66-45 win over the Hallsville Lady Indians. Salisbury’s top three scorers were vital with Bryn Wooldridge leading the way with 25 points. Khloe Wyatt wasn’t far behind with 16 and Brooke Stefankiewicz (stuh-FANK-uh-witz) scored 11, all in the second half. Salisbury coach Wade Billington.

Hallsville coach Matt Heet said there will be no moral victories for his team.

Taylor Jones had a team-high 11 points. Avery Oetting (ETT-ing) and Emily Leer each finished with 10. Salisbury moves to 5-1 with the win.

In the opening game of the night a fast start and a solid finish were enough to lift the Centralia Lady Panthers to a 46-33 win over Harrisburg in the consolation game. The Lady Panthers led 20-4 at one point in the first quarter, but they saw their advantage cut to 3 early in the fourth quarter after scoring just 7 points in the middle quarters. However, a nine point effort in the fourth quarter by Mary Kate Bennett preserved victory. Centralia coach Becca Schemmer said she was pleased with the way her girls responded to the challenge.

Centralia outscored Harrisburg 19-12 in the final quarter. Bennett led all scorers with 15 points. Meanwhile, Zoe Carr led a balanced Lady Bulldog attack with 9 points. Harrisburg coach Ryan Richardson said he liked the fight back from his girls.