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Hazelwood Central Girls Wins Suburban North Tournament
JIM WIENERS
High School Basketball teams do not look at November for hopes in March but hopes a good start can result in a good finish, even though that theory does not always work.
Hazelwood Central Girls opened this season last week the same way as they opened last, by winning the Suburban North Conference’s season-opening tournament. Central, seeded third, defeated tourney host Hazelwood West, 62-50, Riverview Gardens, 62-45 and McCluer North, 65-62. Since November 2000 Hazelwood Central has won five Suburban North Tournaments, finished second in 2003-04, third in 2005-06 and fourth in 2004-05.
Hazelwood Central head coach Wendy Reeves said the Hawks played a lot better against West and Riverview than against McCluer North. “We want to run,” said Reeves but so did McCluer North, the third seeded team in the tournament. Both the Hawks and Stars had their chances but both had to deal with foul trouble since three Stars and a Hawk fouled out and both teams had two more with four fouls.
“We’re aggressive so (with foul troubles) we had to get smarter on defense,” said Reeves. So when point guards Chasity Ussery, a senior, and Candyce Ussery, a freshman with six steals and seven assists, took charge the Hawks took control of the tempo against McCluer North, according to Reeves.
Against McCluer North, BreAnna McLaughlin scored 17 points while Chantiera Johnson had 11 rebounds. Against Riverview Charlonda Bozeman scored 22 points while against West Johnson scored 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
McCLUER NORTH, in finishing second to Hazelwood Central, had a game-high 18
points from Kaci Cason while Tarah Adams led the game in rebounds with 18. “We got the girls that get up and down the floor,” said McCluer North head coach Bob Pechloff. Against Hazelwood Central’s up-tempo game, Pechloff said “they stuck it to the end.”
McCluer North had a big win in the semifinals, 41-36 over top-seeded and 2006-07 Class Five runner-up Hazelwood East. That came the same night last March when McCluer North won the Boys Class Five State title. “That’s a huge win for our program and our team,” Pechloff said.
Against Hazelwood East, Terika Adams scored 15 points while Tarah Adams had 11 rebounds. In the opening-round win over McCluer, 69-47, Tarah Adams scored 18 points while pulling down 14 rebounds.
RIVERVEW GARDENS took third place with wins over Pattonville, 49-43, and Hazelwood East, 49-47, sandwiched around the loss to Central. Riverview, seeded second, got 19 points and six steals from Shelah Fields against Pattonville, 18 points from Regina Young against Central and 15 points from Chantel Jones against East.
HAZELWOOD EAST opened the tournament with a 56-24 win over Ritenour but lost to McCluer North and Riverview. East got 16 points, 11 rebounds and five steals from Channon Haywood against Ritenour. Haywood scored 17 points and 10 rebounds against McCluer North and 19 points against Riverview.
HAZELWOOD WEST rebounded from their first-round loss to Hazelwood Central with wins over Pattonville, 62-39, and Ritenour, 58-24, to win the consolation title. Coneisha Kyles scored 15 points against Central, against Pattonville Shakaunna Futrell scored 17 points Jordan Johnson had 11 assists, and Danielle DeMoulin pulled down 10 rebounds.
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