Waynesville senior Kallie Bildner scored 13 of her game-high 23 points in the fourth quarter and helped the No. 4 seeded Lady Tigers to a 73-64 win over No. 1 seeded Camdenton in the semifinals of the Missouri Class 5 District 10 tournament on Monday at Lebanon.
PICTURES: CAMDENTON VS. WAYNESVILLE – CLICK HERE
Bildner, a 6-foot-2 senior forward who has signed to play at Lindenwood, added a game-high 15 rebounds, and after a quiet third quarter, helped the Lady Tigers pull away in the fourth.
But her performance might have overshadowed that of sophomore guard Re'Shawna Stone.
Stone added 23 points of her own, and it was her 3-pointer with 4:21 remaining in the game that gave Waynesville a 53-49 lead, putting an end to a long back-and-forth run in which both teams captured the lead, only to see the other team get it right back.
Stone's 3-pointer was followed by a three-point play by Bildner on an offensive rebound, which gave Waynesville a 56-49 lead with 3:49 remaining.
Waynesville controlled the game from there, going 15 for 22 at the free throw line over the final three minutes to put the game away.
The game was not only a rematch of last year's district championship game, which was won by Camdenton, but also a rematch between the Ozark Conference rivals as the Lakers won the first contest on Feb. 8 in Camdenton by nine points. Lakers head coach Staci Caffey said the team fought Bildner inside, but in the end it wasn't enough.
"I felt like offensively we just couldn't get anything going and that was a big difference for us," Caffey said. "That's a credit to Waynesville. They did a good job keeping (senior guard Baley Rezabek) out of the lane and that hurt us a lot."
Waynesville entered Monday's game as the only team out of the four-team district to have played each of the three opponents. The Lady Tigers lost all three games and despite entering Monday's game sporting a 17-7 record, were awarded the No. 4 seed.
"When I look back to when we played Camdenton originally, they kind of woke us up to what we lacked in transition defense," Waynesville head coach Brittany Matlock said. "We made it a priority tonight and I think our girls did well playing really good team defense and sticking to the game plan.
"And then we were unselfish. Everyone knows our focus is Kallie (Bildner), but they have done a good job sharing the ball. Hopefully we can continue to build on what we did tonight."
Camdenton got strong play from its bench as the Laker reserves outscored the Waynesville bench 19-0. With four key seniors set to graduate, Caffey said the play by the Laker bench bodes well for the future.
"I think that is the exciting part — our bench averaged 20-22 points per game," Caffey said. "I feel like we have a lot of girls coming up with potential to fill those big shoes. Our bench comes in with the mentality to go as hard as they can for two minutes and give everything they can to the game.
"They wanted it as bad for those seniors as they wanted it for themselves and that is something that I love about this team. They play as hard for each other as they play for themselves."
Waynesville advances to face No. 2 seeded Jefferson City (22-4) in the championship game at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Boswell Auditorium in Lebanon. The Lady Jays knocked off host Lebanon on Monday, 63-47.
WAYNESVILLE 73, CAMDENTON 64
Waynesville 11 16 17 29 — 73
Camdenton 12 16 13 23 — 64
Waynesville — Nina Kizzee 15, Ashton Pilz 8, Kallie Bildner 23, Re'Shawna Stone 23, Kiara Shoulders 5.
Camdenton — Blair Kurtz 4, Sophie Shore 9, Alyssa Ripley 13, Bailey Rezabek 17, Kendall Spraggins 2, Coley Rezabek 10, Tegan Shockely 3, Natalie Basham 4.
