STURGEON, Mo. - The New Bloomfield Lady Wildcats find themselves back in a familiar, favorable position.
Junior guard Madi Craighead connected for 17 points Wednesday night, steering top-seeded New Bloomfield to a convincing 57-38 victory over No. 5 Sturgeon in the Class 2, District 8 semifinals.
The Lady Wildcats (21-6) will now square off against No. 2 seed Eugene - a Show-Me Conference foe - for the District 8 title at 7 p.m. Friday. The Lady Eagles (17-10) advanced with a 73-53 triumph over No. 6 seed Calvary Lutheran in Wednesday night's other semifinal.
New Bloomfield will be playing for a district championship for the fourth year in a row. The Lady Wildcats captured a title in 2014, but have bowed in the championship game the last two years.
"It's a good accomplishment, it was one of our goals to make the district championship," New Bloomfield head coach Brett Craighead said. "Now that we've gotten there, we need to finish it off. We're due."
The Lady Wildcats prevailed at Eugene in a 61-49 SMC victory Jan. 5.
"We have to come out and be relaxed, and take what the defense gives us," Craighead said of Friday night's rematch. "We have to make the chip shots, knock down those gimmes, then everything else will take care of itself."
New Bloomfield led Sturgeon 18-14 after one quarter Wednesday night and went into halftime with a 28-21 advantage. The Lady Wildcats then took control by outscoring the Lady Bulldogs 16-7 in the third quarter to open up a 44-28 edge.
Madi Craighead was one of three players in double figures for New Bloomfield. Senior guard Kate Baxter also tallied 15 points and senior forward Madison Love chipped in with 10.
"We played pretty consistent throughout and had a pretty nice third quarter," Brett Craighead said. "We worked the ball around and knocked down some big shots, and got some stuff out of our (defensive) pressure.
"Our half-court defense was also pretty good."
Emma Bright paced Sturgeon with a game-high 19 points.