By Jordan Burton (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Defending champion Licking elected to head to Rolla’s holiday tournament, leaving the Mountain Grove Holiday Classic wide open. Thayer is the top seed, Gainesville has just two losses, and MV-BT/Liberty has the best player in the event. Here are a few things to know.
Thayer looks really good… again
Thayer is the top seed, ranked No. 2 in Class 2 and clearly the best team in the field. To put it in perspective, Alton is the 2-seed and Thayer beat them by 24 less than a month ago. The Lady Bobcats are allowing just 31 points per game with just one team scoring more than 40. Random fact of the day, Thayer has won 18 of its last 22 games in the month of December and hasn’t lost a regular season game to an in-state opponent since February 2016. That loss came to Salem, who they could see in the second round.
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Best of the Rest
Alton is the two seed and the Lady Comets two losses came against Thayer and Class 2 No. 5 Neelyville. Other than that, Alton has been impressive with wins over MV-BT/Liberty, Willow Springs, Norwood and Greenville. This team is a year ahead of schedule with its top six scorers being juniors, but their ability to score with balance makes them a difficult matchup, especially in a tournament setting.
Mansfield is 7-2 and earned the 3-seed, with its losses to Class 5 Springfield Central and Willow Springs. The Lady Lions have wins over Plato and Bakersfield. They’ve also held five opponents to less than 37 points.
Gainesville continues to surprise people. The loss of Annie Noah to a preseason knee injury was devastating, but the Lady Bulldogs have responded well. Gainesville’s two losses came in the Mammoth Springs Border War by a combined nine points. Outside of that they have wins over Willow Springs, Bakersfield and Couch.
Piper Francis, MV-BT/Liberty heating up
The Lady Eagles got the 7-seed, which may be unfair to everyone on the bottom half of the bracket. They’re 6-3 with losses to Alton, Van Buren and Licking. The Alton loss came by two points and the Van Buren loss came five days after Liberty had beaten them for third place in the Van Buren Tournament. Liberty has won three straight and Francis is finding her grove. She’s averaging 25 points and 8.6 rebounds on the season, but those numbers balloon to 28.7 points and 9.7 rebounds over her last three. She’s already had a pair of 40-point games and is just 25 points away from her 1,500th point. They way she gets buckets, that could happen in the first half on Tuesday.
