Boonville holds off Mount Vernon for state championship

Mar. 21—SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — For the third time in four state tournament games, Mount Vernon mounted a second-half comeback.

The Lady Mountaineers were able to complete the task with victories against Ava and Blair Oaks in the first two rounds.

But this time the halftime deficit proved to be too large, and Boonville held off the Mountaineers 58-52 Saturday afternoon in the Class 4 girls basketball championship game at JQH Arena.

The Pirates (27-2) nailed eight 3-point shots to help build a 22-point cushion midway through the third quarter and earned the first state title in program history. The Pirates, averaging five treys per game and shooting 29% for the season from distance, hit 6-of-13 attempts in the first half and finished 8-of-19 (42%),

"We're kind of up and down a little bit with our 3-point shooting," Boonville coach Jaryt Hunziker said. "Kourtney Kendrick and Jodie Bass came out and were feeling it, and Kennedy Renfrow hit one. We needed those baskets to get us rolling and get the confidence up. It was nice that we had a little cushion because we knew they might make a run."

Addison Brownfield's jumper gave the Pirates their biggest lead, 43-21, with 4:39 left in the third quarter. However, that proved to be Boonville's last field goal, going 0-of-7 from the floor and committing nine turnovers the rest of the game.

Mount Vernon (28-4) sliced the deficit to 45-32 by the end of the third quarter, and a basket by Ellie Johnston and three-point play by Raegan Boswell pulled the Mountaineers within 47-39 with 5:18 remaining.

Johnston's 3 with the aid of a friendly bounce off the rim and a Lacy Stokes layup pulled Mount Vernon within 49-44, and Kaden Krempges hit a free throw to make it 51-47 with 1:41 left. But the Pirates made 7-of-8 charities in the final 1:36 to maintain the lead.

"Since the beginning of the season, we've always been a second-half team," Stokes said. "I think we dug ourselves a hole in the first half and were down 22 in the third. But we have a lot of heart in us and a lot of fight. We try and do what we need to, but I feel a lot of things didn't fall for us tonight like they usually do."

Johnston led the Mountaineers with 21 points, hitting 7-of-13 field goals, 4-of-6 treys and 3-of-3 free throws. She also had eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Stokes was held to 14 points, giving her 825 points for this season and 2,132 for her career, second-most in school history behind Kami Scrivner. Stokes was 5 of 18 from the floor, 2 of 9 from distance and 2-of-3 at the line in addition to seven assists and five rebounds.

Boswell and Cameryn Cassity contributed eight points apiece, and Boswell snagged a game-high nine rebounds. Krempges' free throw completed the Mountaineer scoring.

Brownfield led the Pirates with 19 points, followed by Kendrick with 17 and Bass with 11.

Treys by Johnston and Stokes gave Mount Vernon a 6-3 lead after three minutes, but Kendrick's 3 ignited an 8-2 spurt that gave the Pirates an 11-8 lead after one quarter. Kendrick hit another 3 one minute into the second stanza, and the Pirates made three more in the last five minutes to widen their lead to 33-19 at halftime.

"What was the difference? Their ability to make baskets and our inability to," Mount Vernon coach Grant Berendt said. "They shot the lights out. We'd come down and score a basket, and they went down and hit a 3. Their No. 42 (Emma West) hit that 3 (in the second quarter), I thought oh buddy. and (Kendrick) had only hit (six) 3s on the season, and she hit two in her first three attempts. Those three are on me because I told our kids to back off and provide some help on others. Those kids stepped up and made shots."

The Pirates also employed a press three-quarter court press defense to force a slower tempo than Mount Vernon desired.

"Especially with (Stokes), we saw against Vashon she got to the rim and got Vashon in foul trouble and got a lot of free throws," Hunziker said. "Our whole thing was make them one-dimensional, keep them on the perimeter and try to contain them. We not going to pressure them and trap them as much. and keep an eye on (Johnston) because she can flat-out shoot it."

The Mountaineers made their longest postseason run since winning the 2012 title.

"This is a special group," Berendt said. "Two years ago when we lost all those seniors, there weren't probably a whole lot of people who thought we'd get to .500. We had two juniors, two sophomores and 11 freshmen, and we ended up with 23 wins. Carrying that over to this year and returning everybody, there was so much excitement (to) maybe go do something special.

"It takes more than a good team. You have to have luck, you have to have things fall in your lap a little bit. ... You can't measure heart and fight in kids. I never felt out of it. I felt like we ran out of time. For all our kids to step up and play huge minutes and help in different ways, it's special."

Follow Sports Editor Jim Henry on Twitter at @Jim_Henry53.