By Jim Henry
jhenry@joplinglobe.com
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Effectively taking the ball to the basket most of the game, Mount Vernon knocked off No. 1-ranked Hermann 59-43 Saturday afternoon in a Class 3 girls basketball quarterfinal game at the Hammons Student Center.
The Mountaineers (28-3), a state participant for the 11th time, advanced to the state tournament semifinals for the first time since 1987 and will play Maryville (25-3) at 1:40 p.m. Thursday at Mizzou Arena in Columbia. The Spoofhounds downed Stockton 46-30 in their quarterfinal contest.
Danielle Goodman and Kenzie Williams tallied 14 points apiece to lead Mount Vernon, and Jessica Curl scored nine points, most of them set up by drives down the lane.
“We run the dribble attack,” Williams said. “We practice it every day and try to get better at it in practice. We were hoping all the hard work would pay off.”
“We knew they were probably going to play man-to-man,” Goodman said. “That’s a really good offense to run against man-to-man. It opens up a lot of gaps.”
The dribble penetration also set up open perimeter shots, and Goodman nailed two 3-point goals while scoring 10 second-quarter points when the Mountaineers opened a 34-26 halftime advantage.
“Our offense makes two people play you, so that usually opens up somebody,” Goodman said. “Usually you can get open for a shot.”
The Mountaineers also effectively passed the ball on the interior for easy baskets. Freshman Tamiaya Henderson was the primary beneficiary as most of her 12 points came off pinpoint passes.
“The girls passed the ball well,” Mount Vernon head coach Doug Hepler said. “They did a great job of moving the ball, being unselfish. Unselfish play is what makes us go because we’re hard to guard. You can’t just sit there and key on one person. You have to guard a lot of us.”
Hermann standout Shelby Winkelmann, a 5-foot-9 junior who’s verbally committed to play volleyball at Nebraska, scored 17 points — 11 below her average.
Winkelman hit a free throw, layup and 10-footer, and Ashley Brooks made a 3-pointer as Hermann (26-4) closed to within 38-36 just over two minutes into second half.
Williams scored off an offensive rebound, but Karen Rohlfing’s three-point play pared Mount Vernon’s lead to 40-39 with 3:45 left in the third quarter. Hermann, however, didn’t score again for more than five minutes, and Mount Vernon ran off 10 straight points for a 50-39 lead on Williams’ two free throws with 6:25 left.
“We had a chance to tie or take the lead three or four possessions,” Hermann head coach Todd Anderson said. “I think if we could have hit one shot (then), a lot of times that will turn into multiple shots.
“I thought we settled a lot. Going back, I wish we had been more aggressive and taken them off the dribble more than we did. But, yes, they do have good length and tip a lot of balls. That’s probably more 3s today than we shot all year. A lot of it was they were doing a pretty good job of packing the middle up and taking the drive away. We had pretty good looks, we just didn’t make it.:
“They made a huge run in the third quarter coming out,” Hepler said. “The fourth quarter, once we got the lead, we wanted to make them come out and have to play us, and we wanted to take smart shots. The fourth quarter we really valued the basketball, took the shots we wanted to take. And I thought they got in a little bit of a hurry on the offensive end.”
