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By Matt Turer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
ROGERSVILLE, Mo. – Just under a year ago, Denny McHenry’s Wildcats came within a bucket beating Carl Junction and earning a berth to the Class 4 quarterfinals.
It’s time for the rematch.
Maci McHenry scored a game-high 11 points, Shelby Ince added nine and Jordyn Gault scored eight in the Wildcats 38-31 win over the West Plains Zizzers in Saturday’s Class 4 District 11 championship.
“It’s a great group of girls, and we’ve worked our butts off to get here,” Gault said. “Every day in practice, day-in-and-day-out we’re working hard. It feels really good to be back here with this group.”
The championship makes it back-to-back district titles for a veteran Logan-Rogersville team loaded with five seniors and four juniors.
“It’s been special because it’s a group of girls that’s grown up with my daughter, and I’ve been around them since I came to Rogersville in 2008,” McHenry said. “It’s a special group of girls, and it’s a special group of parents too because they let me coach their kids the way I want to coach them, and our kids let me coach them the way I want to coach them.”
But the seven-point final wasn’t without its moments of doubt for Wildcats fans. Trailing 26-15 with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter, the Zizzers answered with a 10-0 run over the next 3:35, pulling within 26-25 on a MacKenzie Brunson make.
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“We knew they had that potential,” Gault said. “I felt like we settled down and knew the clock and score was on our side and we just had to take care of it.”
The teams traded buckets on the next two possessions before a 7-2 mini-run for Rogersville put the game away in the fourth quarter.
Rogersville’s unforgivingly methodical offense and disciplined defense held West Plains off the scoreboard for most of the first quarter before a Cass Cunningham three made it 9-3 Rogersville at the 2:00 mark.
“What people don’t understand is we try to get up the court and score fast, it’s just that our girls know not to take bad shots,” McHenry said. “They’ve taken the defensive style we like to play, and sometimes our offense looks really bad, but we do know what our identity is. And we just keep grinding it out every day.”
Offense picked up a bit in the second quarter, which was won 10-9 by West Plains but still ended with a 21-13 Wildcats lead.
“I think we gave them 10 points in the first half just on the boards,” West Plains head coach Scott Womack said. “Just didn’t like our energy. We struggled to score and didn’t play with a lot of confidence on the offensive end.”
Both teams scored just two points each for the first 5:46 of the second half before West Plains began its 10-0 run.
“Finally we got some steals off our press and got some energy,” Womack said. “I thought if we could get over the hump we’d have a chance. I just didn’t think we played as well as we’ve been playing, but you have to give credit to Rogersville.”
Cunningham led the Zizzers with nine points, followed by Morgan Mahan’s eight and seven by Hailey Meeks.
It was the final game for Zizzers seniors Liesel Garrett, Meeks and Mahan.
“This was just a fun group to be around,” Womack said. “I thought they really bonded well and turned things around after our 4-6 start. To win 18 games, I’m very proud of them.”
Rogersville’s state sectionals game with Carl Junction is scheduled for March 5 at 7:45 pm in Nixa.
SCORING
WPHS |3|10|6|12| — |31|
LRHS |12|9|5|12| — |38|
West Plains- Cass Cunningham 9, Morgan Mahan 8, Hailey Meeks 7, Bre Harlan 4, MacKenzie Brunson 3
Rogersville- Maci McHenry 11, Shelby Ince 9, Jordyn Gault 8, Taylor Overstreet 4, Shayley Dunavant 3, Sophia Nixon 2, Sydney Dunavant 1
