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Hazelwood West Second At FZN, IWA Wins 7th Straight Viz Title
By Jim Wieners
For the third time in five years of the Fort Zumwalt North Girls Basketball Invitational Tournament Hazelwood West settles for second place while for the seventh year in a row Incarnate Word Academy wins the Visitation Academy Christmas Tournament title.
In each even-numbered calendar year since the tournament began in 2010 Hazelwood West reaches the championship game at Fort Zumwalt North in O’Fallon, Mo., only to lose it. North Technical defeated West in 2010, Hazelwood East defeated West in 2012 and Lutheran St. Charles County won over West on Dec. 19, 2014. Lutheran edged the Wildcats 52-51. It ended a string of four straight titles won by North County high schools, North Tech (2010, 2013) and Hazelwood East (2011, 2012) as Lutheran St. Charles County bounced back from losing in last year’s championship game to North Tech, 57-55.
In the Dec. 19, 2014 championship game Lutheran spotted West the games first four points but the Cougars led most of the game, winning by as much as 11 points (17-6) late in the first quarter and by 10 (37-27) in the third. West did take a 21-20 lead on an Anaiah Boyles basket midway through the second quarter but after the Cougars retook the lead at 22-21 and kept the lead the rest of the way. The Wildcats cut the lead to one early in the fourth quarter and scored the last seven points after trailing 52-44 but after a Mia Barnes basket in the final seconds the ‘Cats could not foul the Cougars as time expired.
West “didn’t take steps down the stretch to take it,” said Wildcat head coach Kelly Russell, a former assistant to Jim Fleming. “We’ve been working (on fouling late in the game) in practice and we didn’t execute them.”
Hazelwood West reached the championship game by defeating Fort Zumwalt East, 54-50, and North Tech, 75-63. In three games Brianna Watkins scored 41 points, pulled down 63 rebounds and blocked 10 shots.
Incarnate Word Goes 7-11 At Visitation
Not only did Incarnate Word Academy won their seventh consecutive Visitation Academy Christmas Tournament but they also become the first team in the Tournament’s 40-year history to win 11 titles. And IWA won the 11 titles in a 23-year span in Town And Country.
Unlike the previous six years Incarnate Word did not play in the championship game against St. Joseph’s Academy, whom they played four times (2009-2012), nor against Hazelwood Central, whom they met twice (2008, 2013). Instead IWA played Kirkwood in the title on Dec. 28, 2014 and the top-seeded Red Knights pummeled the third-seeded Pioneers, 59-33.
IWA did play St. Joe in the Dec. 27, 2014 semifinal and the Red Knights routed the fifth-seeded Angels, 70-43, and in the Dec. 26. 2014 IWA played Hazelwood Central in the quarterfinal and the Red Knights dealt the ninth-seeded Hawks their first loss, 74-49. IWA opened the tournament Dec. 20 with an 86-18 blowout of Parkway South. In four games Napheesa Collier had 36 points per game, 16.5 rebounds per game, 26 steals, 23 blocked shots, 13 assists and made 34 out of 40 free throws.
