By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Columbia, Mo. — Its been six years since Rory Henry guided Walnut Grove to his first Class 1 state title appearance as head coach, and the nerves aren’t getting any easier. Not even after three state championships and six consecutive Final Four berths.
“It doesn’t get old. You still get butterflies. You still get nervous,” Henry said after Walnut Grove’s 57-36 win over Prairie Home Thursday night in Mizzou Arena.
“The only thing that gets easier is I remember my first year being up here, just really nervous, and that gets a little easier with experience. I was a lot younger than. As far as the pressure, I don’t think about that.”
CLICK HERE FOR PRAIRIE HOME VS. WALNUT GROVE PHOTOS
Walnut Grove slowed Class 1’s littlest team to a crawl in the second quarter, allowing just a single field goal that ended up being Prairie Home’s last for nearly 14 full minutes of game time.
The Lady Tigers (28-4) did it behind a defense that was too fast and an offense that was too efficient for the six girls making up the roster of Prairie Home (22-9), a school of just 35 students making its first playoff appearance since 1999.
Now, after losing to Naylor in last year’s semifinals, Walnut Grove, in its 13th Final Four, is on the precipice of a fifth state title, its first coming under now Walnut Grove boys head coach Darren Meinders and the last three coming under Henry in 2013, ’14 and ’15.
“I’m looking forward to being back in the championship game,” Henry said. “We didn’t like not playing in it last year. We were very disappointed, so that’s been on our mind all year and we’ve been telling people we’ll accept nothing less than to get back to this game.”
For Raylie Hejna, who finished with 15 points and seven boards, this is a chance to cement her legacy as the leader of a team with only two seniors, the other being Kylee Verbeck. But a return to the title game means as much for Walnut Grove’s underclassman to make sure that legacy carries on.
Sophomore Myranda McVay led that next-generation group tonight, connecting on 4-of-5 3s for 12 points, nearly nine points above her season average.
“I think they want their own legacy,” Harman said of the younger Lady Tigers. “[McVay] wants this to be her team and our team and to be able to say, ‘We went to state.’”
Harman led Walnut Grove with 21 points, eight boards, six assists and six steals. Three of those 3s came in a 2.5-minute stretch of the second quarter that kicked off a 24-2 run for the Lady Tigers, turning an 18-16 contest into a 42-18 game.
Prairie Home’s Shianne Rhorer had 11 points in the first quarter but finished with just 16, well under her 25.6 points per game average.
“Out of rhythm,” Praire Home head coach Dalton Armontrout said. “Couldn’t get anything going. Shianne helped us a lot in the first half, then the Bayley Harman girl decided to hit three 3s in a row. We tried to switch to a box-and-1 to mess with her a little bit, but offensively we just couldn’t hit any shots.”
Prairie Home was limited to 28.6 percent shooting for the game, connecting on 12-of-42 shots and just 3-of-17 3s.
“They didn’t quit the entire game and hats off to them, it’s impressive when you only have six players and they play as hard as they do. Especially Rhorer, she just played hard the entire game,” Henry said of the Lady Panthers.
Walnut Grove will face Mercer (30-1) in the state title game Saturday at 12:50 pm in Mizzou Arena.
“What I asked them right after they came out of the locker room tonight was, ‘What hurt worse? The pain of playing hard? Or to get beat last year?’ And they said the pain of last year was way worse.”
FINAL: Walnut Grove 57, Prairie Home 36
Prairie Home-14 4 9 9- 36
Walnut Grove- 18 17 12 10- 57
Prairie Home- Shianne Rhorer 16, Ashlyn Twenter 9, Racher Distler 8, Kristen Peterson 3
Walnut Grove- Bayley Harman 21, Raylie Hejna 15, Myranda McVay 12, Grace McPhail 5, Grace Miller 4
