By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Aurora’s girls basketball team leaned on three-point shooting and free throws to get the job done.
The Lady Houns made 10 triples in the game and 8-of-9 free throws in the fourth quarter to overcome Seneca 48-38 on Saturday in the Class 4 District 12 championship at Monett, winning the program’s first district title since 2012 in the process.
Aurora (20-8) advances to Tuesday’s sectional round at Rolla and will face Ava (24-4) at 7:45 p.m.
“It’s one of those things where going into the year we felt like we had a good chance with it,” Aurora coach Jason Cole said. “We stayed with the process as we went through and the girls have done great with that from day one of the summer until now.”
The Lady Houns used a big second quarter to take the lead for good after perhaps struggling with some nerves early on.
Aurora only scored on three of its 13 possessions in the first and didn’t commit a turnover, while Seneca (12-16) jumped out to a 15-8 lead with sophomore Hazley Grotjohn pouring in 13 points.
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Lady Houns’ sophomore Kylee Cole and senior Ellie Creasey got hot from beyond the arc in the second, though. Cole made three 3-pointers, Creasey added two more and Aurora outscored Seneca 17-7 to lead 25-22 at the half.
“Coming out I think we were a little tight, it being a championship game,” Jason Cole said. “We knew they were trying to pack in the lane and make us make shots on the perimeter and we had to. We were getting good looks. We stayed the course with it, continuing to get ourselves ready to shoot with our footwork and just trusting the work we’ve put in is going to pay off as it went along and it did.”
Grotjohn scored twice early in the third to get the Indians within a point, but Aurora sophomore Jaelyn Ernest made a 3-pointer with 5:05 left in the period that keyed a 7-0 run and the Lady Houns led by six going into the fourth.
It was a four-point game with 5:23 remaining when sophomore Makena Hall scored from beyond the arc to make it 40-33. That was Aurora’s last field goal of the game, and the Lady Houns then went to work at the line to finish Seneca off.
Ernest and Cole were each 2 for 2 and Creasey was 4 for 4 in the period. They all came in the final four-and-a-half minutes of the game and helped Aurora double its lead from five to 10.
“Down the stretch we went and got the ball and we took care of it and knew they were going to have to foul or we were going to have to get open looks,” Cole said.
And, after Grotjohn scored 18 in the first half, Aurora limited her to six points in the second as Seneca scored just 16 points in the final two quarters.
“They came out and they hit shots,” Seneca coach Drew Schulte said. “We had our chances, we just didn’t put it in the hole tonight. They played great defense, they were patient on offense and they did what they needed to do to win. Hats off to them and their team, they’re a good ball club. We played well tonight, it just didn’t fall through the hoop.”
Cole led Aurora with 16 points and made four 3-pointers. Creasey had 12 points, Ernest had 10, Hall had six and senior Payden Blevins scored four.
Grotjohn scored 24 for Seneca, senior Parker Long had seven, sophomore Daelynd Campbell had five and junior Sydnee Staley added one.
