By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Destiny Buerge knew exactly how many points she needed and the Carl Junction fans did, too.
With 1:13 remaining in a Class 5 sectional Wednesday night at McDonald County, the Bulldog sophomore made a field goal to surpass 1,000 points in her young career. The basket elicited some of the loudest cheers of the night from the visitors as Carl Junction cruised to a business-like 58-32 road win.
Buerge entered the night just 25 points shy of the milestone and scored a game-high 28.
“Yeah, I knew exactly how much I had,” she said with a smile afterwards.
“It really means a lot because I feel like it means more because it’s in a sectional game so I feel like more people would be here to see what I’ve done and how much I’ve worked to accomplish things,” she said.
“It’s terrific to have a sophomore score her thousandth point,” Carl Junction coach Brad Shorter said. “Considering we didn’t play two games this year because of a tournament being canceled with COVID and could have had two games last year in the Final Four and didn’t get to play those. With that in mind there’s four games. Who knows what she’s going to score there. It’s a great feat for a kid that’s a sophomore and she just continues to get better and better.”
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The Bulldogs (18-8) opened the game with an 11-1 run and finished the first quarter ahead 18-5. The host Mustangs made some noise early in the second quarter with a short 6-2 burst to pull within 25-13, but Carl Junction finished the half with a Buerge basket and two three pointers by sophomore Klohe Burk to lead 33-13 at the break.
Buerge scored 14 in the first half and Burk knocked down four triples.
Shorter said Carl Junction’s defensive pressure was key to the quick start. The Mustangs (13-15) turned it over seven times in the first quarter and didn’t make their first field goal until five minutes had elapsed.
“Just getting out and pressuring them a little bit,” he said. “I think we got some really good looks at the basket. Klohe Burk had some big shots for us, knocked down four three’s in the first half and that kind of opened some things up with some driving lanes. That defensive pressure was big for us.”
Buerge added five more points in the third and nine in the fourth while Burk added a fifth three pointer in the second half. It was 41-18 after three.
McDonald County’s best quarter was the fourth, with five different Mustangs combining for 16 points. Senior Sydney Killion had five of those and finished with a team-high 12 points. Senior Kristin Penn added four in the fourth and sophomore Megan Elwood, freshman Carlee Cooper and junior Kloe Myers also scored.
Penn finished with six points in the game and junior Adasyn Leach added five.
Burk finished with 15 points for Carl Junction as the only other Bulldog in double figures. Sophomore Hali Shorter scored seven and senior Hannah Lee and junior Jessa Hylton each had four.
“Hope that they’re getting to that point where they understand that we’re going to take everybody’s best shot and we want to give everybody our best shot and expectations are high in our program,” Shorter said. “And our kids are growing up. A lot of sophomores and freshmen at the beginning of the season now are juniors and sophomores. Understanding what we’re about and how hard we want to play and you know it’s a position that we can say hey, we’ve been here before. That’s going to be big for us moving forward.”
Now Carl Junction finds itself in the state quarterfinals for the fifth time in six years. The Bulldogs are 143-28 in that span with three Final Four appearances and were 28-0 and in the semifinals last year when the season was canceled.
“I think we just need to keep playing our game, playing how we are, pushing ourselves to the limit until we’re done,” Buerge said.
“There’s a lot more confidence and they’re loose,” Shorter said. “I guess maybe that’s a little bit of the youth but they’re having fun and that’s important. This game is about having fun and you look back at last year and not getting to finish the Final Four; we were all thinking man we would just love to play one more game. I think that’s kind of hit home with these girls. It could end at any time, any moment. Just be thankful with what we’ve got.”
Carl Junction will travel to West Plains (26-3) on Saturday; the Bulldogs beat the Zizzers 41-33 in last year’s sectional round.
“They’ve got some athletes we’re going to have to do a good job with,” Shorter said. “But you know what, we’re the underdog here and we haven’t been the underdog very much in the last four or five years. We can go out and play loose and have fun and see what happens.”
