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Second State Trip for Hazelwood East Girls Basketball Nets 2nd-Place Finish
BY JIM WIENERS
Head coach Terry Creamer was asked if his Hazelwood East Girls Basketball team making their first championship game appearance last Saturday was a step in the upward direction after finishing fourth place Coach Terry Creamer nodded, yes.
However Hazelwood East’s hopes for a Class Five State title fell 10 points short at the University of Missouri Columbia’s Mizzou Arena. The Spartans lost in the state championship game 56-46 to Liberty in a game televised statewide by FSN-Midwest.
East made the title game by defeating former Suburban North Conference rival Normandy, 69-52 last Friday at Mizzou Arena after going overtime to defeat Nerinx Hall, 56-54 March 3 at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Francis Howell Central, 72-67 at Lindenwood University .
“We came back (from last year’s state trip) with eight girls” said Creamer “We’ll be coming back (next season) with eight girls.”
East will lose three seniors to graduation including two starters. One of them is center Dalila Thomas, who led all scorers in the title game with 21 points while blocking three shots.
In the title game East (24-6) had the lead for most of the first half but led by no more than six in the first quarter. Liberty, however took the lead for good with 3:50 left and although East got to within a point three times in the fourth quarter Liberty pulled away in the last minute to win by 10. Liberty made 15 out of 19 free throws while East connected on 12 of 20.
A pair of guards, senior Kara Fleming and junior Kami Groom, scored 12 points each while senior forward Heather Wansing added 11. Fleming did most of the damage from the free throw line as she made 10 out of 14 shots.
In the state semifinals Normandy outscored East 17-10 in the first quarter and the Vikings led by as many as nine in that quarter. From the second quarter to the end it was all East as the Spartans out scored the Vikings 59-35 the rest of the way and led by as many as 20 with 2:28 left in the game. Sophomore guard Robniesha Wood had 18 points and 10 steals, junior forward Channon Haywood had 14 points and 13 rebounds and junior forward Jantelle McNeil scored 13.
Against Nerinx in the Quarterfinals, a team that ousted last year’s state champion Incarnate Word Academy in the Sectionals, Haywood had 18 points, 10 rebounds and eight steals, Wood had 13 points and five assists and Thomas scored 12.
Against Howell Central in the Sectionals Haywood (17 points), Thomas (16 points) and Wood (14 points) were East’s leading scorers.
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