Lady Wildcats trip Hermann, reach South Callaway title game

MOKANE - The No. 2 seed New Bloomfield Lady Wildcats advanced to the title game of the South Callaway Invitational Tournament by outscoring the No. 3 Hermann Lady Bearcats 36-26 in the second half of Wednesday night's 58-50 semifinal win.

New Bloomfield (12-2) - winners of nine in a row - trailed 24-22 at halftime, but went in front to stay by outscoring Hermann 21-13 in the third quarter to go in front 43-37. The Lady Wildcats clinched a berth in the championship by outscoring the Lady Bearcats 15-13 over the last 8 minutes.

"We went to a little halfcourt pressure to start the third quarter," New Bloomfield head coach Brett Craighead said. "We picked up the pace and speeded (Hermann) up a little bit."

Senior forward Ashley Kelley topped three players in double figures for the Lady Wildcats with 20 points. Senior forward Taylor Howard also registered 17 points and freshman guard Madi Craighead added 10.

Tesla Ruediger tallied a game-high 26 points for Hermann.

New Bloomfield will square off against No. 4 seed North Callaway in an all-Callaway showdown for the tournament title at 5 p.m. Saturday. The Ladybirds (9-5) - who own a five-game winning streak - reached the finals by knocking off state-ranked and top-seeded Harrisburg 63-57 in Wednesday night's other semifinal.

"We'll have to get out and play good defense on their shooters and be aware of their big girls inside," Brett Craighead said. "(Offensively), we have to continue hitting shots. We don't rely on just one person; we're getting scoring from different people every night."