By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Defense has been a strength of the College Heights girls all year and the team leaned on it again Friday night.
The Cougars forced 19 turnovers in the game and limited Jasper to just three points in the first quarter en route rolled to a 51-24 victory in the Class 2 District 12 championship at Webb City.
College Heights improved to 26-2 in the process.
“The girls are super excited, I am as well,” coach John Blankenship said. “It was a difficult game. Jasper played really well. They had a good game plan coming into it. We struggled a little bit at the start, got in some foul trouble and that kind of took us out of our game plan a little bit but the girls fought through, did a good job and we’re grateful for the opportunity to play for a championship again and super excited we won it.”
The Cougars suffered a six-point loss to Wheaton in last year’s finals. But the top seed wasn’t going to be denied this year.
College Heights won by 50 points in the district quarterfinals and by 38 in the semifinals. The 24 points allowed against Jasper was far from the team’s best defensive effort this season.
Eight times the Cougars have allowed fewer than that, and Friday marked the fifth time they’ve allowed exactly 24.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME
“Our defense has been sensational all year long,” Blankenship said. “We had a couple breakdowns, let them get some open looks. We got in some foul trouble early. Emmy (Colin) picked up two pretty quick fouls so we kind of had to pull the pressure off just a little bit but our defense has been great all year long. It gets us out into our transition game. I was really pleased with our defense tonight.”
Jasper, the third seed, turned it over 13 times in the first half and trailed 12-3 after a quarter. The Eagles didn’t let the game get away in the first half, though.
Senior Kristy Holliday scored 12 points in the first two quarters and helped the Eagles stay within 11 points at halftime, 25-14.
College Heights’ defense, and its balanced scoring effort, was too much, though.
Five different Cougars scored in each of the third and fourth quarters and the team dribbled out more than two-and-a-half minutes at the end of the third before taking a 37-21 lead into the final eight minutes.
Jasper only made one field goal in the fourth quarter.
“They’re quick,” Jasper coach Kent Anderegg said. “They have good guards, a lot of guards. They get their hands on the ball a lot. Obviously turnovers gave them some points, too.”
Anderegg was just happy his team had a chance to play on Friday night.
“We had a great season,” he said. “I don’t think we really at the beginning of the year were talking about getting into a district championship game so that was really great for the girls. They haven’t actually been in a first-place game their four years, the seniors, so this was a really great moment for us to be on this stage. College Heights is obviously a great team. They’ve won 26 games this year. I thought we competed with them, I thought we fought with them but they just got us in the end. They have so much talent.”
College Heights was led by 12 points from Colin and 11 from Catie Secker.
Jasper’s Holliday scored 16.
