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By Calen VanNess (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Hartville continued its recent dominance over Fordland with an 80-54 win to claim the Class 2 District 9 championship on Thursday night. It is the second consecutive district title for the Lady Eagles.
After a tightly contested first quarter, it was a dominant second quarter by Hartville junior forward Grace Culver that opened up a 42-26 advantage for Hartville at the half. Culver poured in 16 of her team’s 28 points in the quarter as she relentlessly attacked the basket.
“I didn’t hit as many shots as I normally do in the first, but I knew that I needed to come into the second quarter and just shake it off and play like I knew that I could,” said Culver, who ended the game with 22 points.
“That’s how explosive she can be,” said Hartville head coach Mike Percival about Culver’s second quarter. “That gave us a little bit of room and helped us relax.”
Any chance of a second-half comeback for Fordland was quickly squashed by Hartville senior guard Sadie Chisum. After a somewhat quiet first half by her standards, Chisum dominated the second half with 19 points, many of those points coming from pull-up jumpers that only touched the bottom of the net.
Chisum humbly credited her teammates for her success.
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“We all worked together,” said Chisum. “It wasn’t just me. My teammates got me the ball where it needed to be.”
After having only beaten Fordland by ten points a week ago, Percival was proud of his team for shaking off the nerves and executing the game plan en route to their lopsided victory.
“I thought we were a little bit nervous early, but once we settled down and started attacking the right way, things got a lot better,” said Percival. “We struggled last week against their style. We wanted to make sure we didn’t repeat the same thing.”
Fordland’s junior guard Abi Southard did her best Superman impression and tried to keep her team in the game by pouring in 26 points, but Hartville consistently answered each one of her shots.
Chisum was proud of the way her team pulled together.
“We knew we had to lock down on defense,” said Chisum. “We knew who their key players were, and I thought we helped each other out. We were all there for each other the whole time.”
Percival was excited about celebrating yet another district crown and hopes these types of wins do not end any time soon.
“That’s back-to-back,” said Percival. “That’s great for these kids and this program. We have two seniors, so we will have a few coming back. That will help feed the fire for next year.”
“It’s awesome,” said Culver of winning the title. “This was our goal since we lost at sectionals last year. We came back and did what we had to do to win.”
Hartville senior guard Skylar Divine summed up what another district championship meant to her.
“There’s no feeling like it,” said Divine. “We are so excited to have another chance at a state run.”
Hartville will either play Blue Eye or Spokane in sectionals on Feb. 27 at 7:45 pm. The game will be held in Mountain Grove.
Box Score
Hartville 14 28 20 18—80
Fordland 9 17 15 13—54
Hartville – Sadie Chisum 26, Grace Culver 22, Jadalyn Keith 10, Katie Still 10, Skylar Divine 8, McKinley Sanders 4
Fordland – Abi Southard 26, Sophie Sparks 14, Mahalia Burks 7, Kenzie Branson 4, Emily Whiteford 3
