By Richard Polen
rpolen@joplinglobe.com
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Mount Vernon’s girls used an offensive burst late in the first half to advance to the Class 3 championship Thursday with a 54-46 victory against Maryville at Mizzou Arena.
The Mountaineers face Cardinal Ritter, a 50-42 winner against Macon in the other semifinal game, at noon Saturday.
Mount Vernon led 23-19 with 3 minutes, 1 second remaining in the first half when Amelia Braymer started a 9-3 run by sinking a pair of free throws.
A basket by Tamiaya Henderson with an assist from Kenzie Williams followed by two free throws from Henderson put Mount Vernon on top 29-22, and a 3-point goal by Williams with 18 seconds left closed out the scoring in the first half.
Williams and Danielle Goodman each scored 12 points for Mount Vernon. Monica Senninger added 10 points and Braymer finished with nine by making nine of 10 free throws.
“It shows how balanced we are,” Mount Vernon head coach Doug Hepler said. “Once we figured out what they were doing, we were able to settle in. It was just a matter of adjusting.”
The Mountaineers’ 2-1-2 zone defense forced Maryville to shoot from the perimeter for most of the game, and Maryville’s leading scorer, senior guard Meridee Scott, made just two of 11 field-goal attempts and scored eight points.
“Their zone defense was really good,” Scott said. “We’re usually a good 3-point shooting team, but today they just didn’t fall.”
Maryville made 15 of 49 field-goal attempts (30.6 percent) and was six of 10 from the free-throw line. Meanwhile, Mount Vernon shot 43.2 percent from the field and made 19 of 27 free throws.
“We had some girls step up and make their free throws and that kept us calm,” Williams said. “We just wanted to get as many stops as we could. We had some shots that didn’t fall and some turnovers, but we didn’t let them get back in it.”
Mataya Wooten led Maryville with 16 points, including four 3-point goals, and Molly Stiens had three 3-point goals for nine points.
“They made a lot of shots but not many of them were uncontested,” Hepler said. “We wanted them to shoot over us.”
Mount Vernon led 8-2 early in the first quarter, but the Spoofhounds recovered and tied the score at 8.
Goodman’s 3-pointer, the team’s first in six attempts, put Mount Vernon on top 15-9 early in the second quarter. Williams’ pass to Senninger for a fast-break layup gave the Mountaineers a 20-15 lead, and another 3-point goal by Goodman made it 23-16 with four minutes left in the half.
“We hit several big shots in the first half or we would have been down 15 or 20,” Maryville head coach Grant Hageman said. “They hung in there and kept fighting. Getting down by 10 at half, we could have folded.”
