High school girls' basketball: Southern Boone 47, South Callaway 38

ELDON - The Lady Bulldogs were outscored 16-5 in the second quarter in a season-ending loss to the Lady Eagles in a state-ranked semifinal clash at the Class 3, District 9 Tournament on Wednesday night.

Third-seeded South Callaway - ranked fifth in Class 3 - had its seven-game winning streak stopped in completing the season with a 23-3 record. Sixth-ranked Southern Boone - the second seed - improved to 22-4.

"We knew going into this game that it was going to be a true battle," Lady Bulldogs head coach Darren Humphrey said. "There is a reason that these two teams have been state-ranked throughout the year."

South Callaway was only down 11-7 after one quarter, but the Lady Eagles used their second-quarter outburst to open up a 27-12 lead at halftime. The Lady Bulldogs still trailed 36-23 to begin the fourth quarter, but rallied to pull within 40-36 with under a minute remaining in the game.

However, that would be as close as South Callaway would get.

"We had some things that hindered our game throughout the night," Humphrey said. "If you couple the turnovers, rebounding and foul trouble - and figure in Southern Boone's second-quarter shooting performance - you will find the difference in the outcome of the score."

Junior guard Paige Clubb shared game scoring honors with 13 points to top the Lady Bulldogs. Sophomore guard Raegan Brown added 10 points.

"Going into halftime down 15 points - more than what we had even scored in the first half of play - added to the pressure but it wasn't looked at as being overwhelming," Humphrey said. "Many of these team members had been in very similar situations before in their careers and knew exactly the work that it would take to dig their way back into the game."

Lexi Ussery also tallied 13 points to guide three players in double figures for Southern Boone. Mariah Prince supplied 11 points and Gabbie Bruce had 10.

"You have to look at this game in two different aspects, for sure," Humphrey said. "First, a person can't take anything away from the Southern Boone girls - they are extremely good and play with logical precision.

"Secondly, we witnessed a team from South Callaway play a game with every ounce of courage and devotion that anyone could ask for. Though we would have loved to see the outcome of this game come to a different conclusion, our girls put together a season that they - as well as the entire community - should be proud of."

Southern Boone faces top-seeded and third-ranked California (21-5) for the District 9 title at 7 tonight. California reached the championship with a 46-33 win over No. 4 seed Blair Oaks in Wednesday night's other semifinal.