By Levi Payton

sports@joplinglobe.com

NEOSHO, Mo. — The one constant throughout the Neosho Holiday Tournament has been the dominant play of the Neosho girls team.

With convincing victories of 19 and 27 points to get into the championship game, the Wildcats continued to roll over opponents as they downed Springdale 51-37 on Wednesday night in the Neosho High School gymnasium.

The win marked the first time the Wildcats have ever won their tournament. However, they would have preferred to win it in a different way.

One night after scoring 27 points on East Newton, the Wildcats’ Savannah Snow went down with an injury to her left knee. Snow, who injured her right knee in last year's Holiday Tournament, was seen on crutches later.

Despite the loss of Snow, the Wildcats went to work on the Bulldog defense as Lorelei Snow took over for her sister and had 21 to lead all scorers. She knocked down five 3-pointers and was named tournament MVP after the game. She also scored her 1,000th career point in the game.

"I think Lorelei has come a long way," Wildcats coach Grant Young said. "She's really matured in the few years that I've been coaching her, and to get her 1,000th point in a game like this is really special."

Young was also pleased with the way his team rallied after Snow’s injury.

"We had a lot of adversity from the first to the fourth quarter," he said. "I thought our kids handled it really well. The big thing is we had some young kids step up and handle the ball well for us."

Kayln Vlasin scored 10 for the Wildcats, including eight from the free throw line.

Tiffany Wiseley scored 10 to lead Springdale.

In the all-Arkansas boys championship Van Buren toppled Morrilton 53-35.

Morrilton built a 19-6 lead in the first quarter but the 7A Pointers proved to be too much as the game wore along.

"I thought it was a great effort," Pointers coach Randy Loyd said. "We did start off a little slow with them going up 11-0. But I thought our kids just competed extremely hard. I'm really proud of them."