Through three quarters of this Class 4 state quarterfinal game, the Owensville Dutchgirls looked to be outmatched by the bigger, taller and longer Lady Bulldogs from Carl Junction.
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And physically, perhaps they were. Owensville had just 21 points heading into the final frame trailing 31-21 in what was a brutal defensive battle up to that point in the game. The Dutchgirls were able to storm back in the fourth quarter, forcing the game to an overtime period and ultimately emerged victorious 55-52.
Early in the fourth quarter, Carl Junction junior guard Emma Frack was involved in a loose-ball play where her head bounced off the floor with 6:10 on the clock. She had to be helped off the court and would not return. This forced Lindsey Showalter to move from her shooting guard position and become the main ball handler, causing other players to change positions as well. Following Frack’s injury, Owensville closed the quarter on a 13-6 run and caught up with the Bulldogs, forcing the overtime.
“I thought there were a lot of momentum switches, but unfortunately one of the big ones is when their point guard goes down with an injury,” said Owensville coach Steve Tappmeyer. “It wasn’t a cheap shot or anything, but still, they’re a different team with her out of there and they sure battled and made a lot of plays without her out. I thought there were several momentum plays but that was one of them, one of the biggest.”
“We had control of that game the whole time,” CJ coach Brad Shorter said. “It’s extremely difficult to swallow. I think when we lost Emma there late, you could obviously tell how she was carried off the floor that she’s not going to go back in. And that hurt us because now we’re at a point where we’re without a point guard and we’ve got to move Showalter out, move another kid into the middle, and [Alex] Vogt out of the middle too. Just a tough sequence of events there for us, but I’m proud of our kids.”
Even despite the key injury, Carl Junction was still in a position to win the game in regulation. Their poor free throw shooting down the stretch (a stretch where they missed five-straight free throws to close the fourth quarter) doomed their chances of winning.
“You’ve got to give [Owensville] credit,” said Shorter. “They kept fighting and our kids kept fighting too. It was just unfortunate, and to be honest, that’s our loss. It’s tough because we had control of that game the whole time and just didn’t finish it off. I think we had probably close to twenty, twenty-one turnovers and missed eleven free throws. If you do that in a game like this, you’re not going to win.”
Sophomore forward Megan Scott – who measures in at 6’2” – played a terrific in every facet of the game except for one. She delivered 14 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks, but she went 0-6 at the charity stripe including two in the final moments in the fourth quarter and two in overtime.
Junior Alex Vogt led all scorers with 22 points and the senior Showalter added seven for Carl Junction.
Senior forward Hailey Diestelkamp sparked many big plays for the Dutchgirls of Owensville late in the contest. She netted twelve of her team-high 21 points in the fourth quarter and overtime after getting off to a slow start.
“She’s just done that for us all year,” Tappmeyer said of Diestelkamp. “The girls look to her and she’s just been a tremendous player, the best player to ever play at our school for sure.”
Owensville will head to the Class 4 Final Four at Mizzou Arena in Columbia to face an undefeated Benton team on March 18. This is just the second time in school history that Owensville has made it to the state semifinals.
Carl Junction’s season will come to an end, finishing with a 26-3 record. Coach Shorter shared this message with his team after the game.
“Just one game, one half really, one quarter really doesn’t define our season,” he said. “I just told them that I’m awfully proud of them and I thanked them for being part of an awfully good journey. The way that they’ve fought all year long and the success that we’ve had in itself just shows how they’re going to be successful later in life. As a coach you never have a final speech ready for something like that. We talked about that, and what I love is how they play, how hard they play and who they play for. There are a lot of things that are more important than basketball, and keep in perspective that it’s just a ballgame. It’s just a ballgame. [They’re an] awfully great group of kiddos and told them this; I would much rather stay home with you guys than go to the Final Four with anybody else. And I meant it.”
Owensville – 8 – 2 – 11 – 18 – 16 – 55
Carl Junction – 11 – 9 – 11 – 8 – 13 – 52
Owensville – Hailey Diestelkamp 21, Brookelyn Limberg 17, Kayla Charboneau 6, Savannah Ellis 5, Breanna Diestelkamp 4, Madison Rowe 2
Carl Junction – Alex Vogt 22, Megan Scott 14, Lindsey Showalter 7, Skylar Sadler 6, Emma Frack 3
