STURGEON - The state-ranked, top-seeded New Bloomfield Lady Wildcats straightened out their shooting issues in the second half, giving themselves a chance to contend for a championship.
Freshman guard Madi Craighead connected for a game-high 19 points and New Bloomfield outscored No. 5 seed Paris 31-21 over the final 16 minutes Wednesday night in the Lady Wildcats' 49-38 semifinal win at the 31st-annual Sturgeon Tournament.
New Bloomfield (16-3) - ranked No. 9 in Class 2 - moves on to meet the winner of Wednesday night's late semifinal between No. 2 seed Community R-6 and No. 3 South Callaway for the tournament title at 9 p.m. Friday.
"We'll have to come out and start better," Lady Wildcats head coach Brett Craighead said.
New Bloomfield was burdened by a slow beginning Wednesday night. The Lady Wildcats were only up 9-5 after one quarter and went into halftime with a slight 18-17 lead.
Almost doubling its total, New Bloomfield outscored Paris 15-10 in the third quarter to widen its advantage to 33-27. The Lady Wildcats then secured their spot in the championship by outscoring the Lady Coyotes 16-11 in the fourth quarter.
"I thought our energy was good, but we couldn't hit shots for anything in the early going, and that weighs on you," Craighead said. "In the second half, it was just a matter of us hitting a few shots; we didn't do anything differently."
Senior center Brooke Kelley added 13 points for New Bloomfield, while senior forward Taylor Howard contributed eight. Senior forward Ashley Kelley grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.
Britney Williams and Drew Lockhart scored 12 points apiece to lead Paris.
"I thought we played pretty good defense," Craighead said. "The girls didn't quit, we switched up our pressure from time to time and sped them up a little bit."