I think I’m more impressed with the Harrisburg girls each time they take the court, and tonight was the best I’ve seen them play all season.
Program cover from the Gary Filbert Classic. Participating schools include Sturgeon, Scott County Central, Rock Bridge, Whitfield, Mexico, Harrisburg and Savannah.
They scored only 28 points in the first half, but then the Lady Bulldogs exploded for 51 second-half points to beat Class 4 Mexico 79-59 in the third game of the inaugural Gary Filbert Classic.
Everything was nearly perfect in the second half. Harrisburg rebounded better, players attacked the basket better and some of the passes they dished out tonight made me wonder if I was watching a boys game instead. I’ve never seen a girls team pass as well as they did, threading the needle on a couple of them through traffic to get some better shot attempts.
Tonight’s game alone would get Chelsey Kroese her third consecutive All-State honors. She reached the 1,000-point milestone Thursday night against Hallsville, but tonight she set another career-high with 29 points. I wish I had kept track of her steals and assists, because her box score line would drop some jaws.
During the first and third quarters, I sat next to the scorer’s table, which means I was also sitting next to a few Mexico fans. At halftime, the official scorer was talking to the KRCG cameraman, who came by to check the point totals. She noted the top scorers for Mexico, but then went on to say, “This girl is killing us,” pointing at Kroese’s 15 points. It kind of reminded me of the line from the movie “Space Jam” right before the aliens stole Charles Barkley’s talent (for those unfamiliar with the movie, sorry, I couldn’t find a clip on YouTube).
Unlike the movie, Kroese still had her talent in the second half. Her point total continued to rise, but once she hit 27 points, she began to pass off to her teammates. I had her down for at least six assists and late in the fourth quarter, she appeared to be content with tying her career-high. With Harrisburg up by 20-plus points, head coach Dan Bachmeier took out his star senior, for what we thought would be the last time of the game.
We were wrong.
Here's a picture of Chelsey Kroese scoring the final basket for her career-high 29 points against Mexico. Kroese passed the 1,000-point plateau in Thursday's win against Hallsville and has 1,050 points as of Saturday night. She has a pretty good chance of getting to 1,250 before the end of the season.
Mexico went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 70-55 and Bachmeier inserted Kroese back into the lineup. Moments later, she drove the lane to score points No. 28 and 29, and then came out for one final time.
As noted in the first question of my postgame interview with Bachmeier, the second half was the most unselfish basketball I’ve ever seen at the high school level. It wasn’t just Kroese. It was a complete team effort, whether it was Haley Heuer dishing off to Kroese, Tina Chickering passing ahead to Kroese, Kroese finding Rachael Douglas for an open look or Kroese drawing a double team, then passing to a wide open Chickering along the baseline. If Harrisburg plays like this in the playoffs, the sky is the limit for the Lady Bulldogs.
As for statistics, Heuer was the only other player to reach double figures in scoring with 14 points. She also pulled down six rebounds. Kassi Blakemore and Paige Heibel each had nine points and Chickering added eight points.
Harrisburg improves to 13-1 this season and with the loss, Mexico falls to 10-5. Harrisburg hosts Centralia on Tuesday and travels to California on Thursday.
I arrived well ahead of the Harrisburg girls game to catch a glimpse of the Scott County Central boys game against Sturgeon. To my surprise, Sturgeon had a great second half and pulled away for a 73-62 win over the back-to-back-to-back Class 1 state champions.
Sturgeon rebounded better in the second half and Lane Arends had a huge game, scoring 23 points. Spencer Kelly also had 21 points.
To be honest, I was rather disappointed with the lack of attendance for this game. I understand SCC might bring a total of 12 fans because it’s a four-hour drive, and I knew Sturgeon would bring its typical amount of fans. But I figured there would be several more curious fans like myself, who wanted to see a Scott County team that we usually only get to see at Mizzou Arena in March.
This was a tremendous win for Sturgeon, but I’m going to play devil’s advocate here for a minute. Scott County Central was coming off a championship win over Scott City on Friday night in Chaffee, then had to wake up bright and early this morning and make the long trip to Mexico. I’m not one for making excuses, but I wonder why this game couldn’t have been played later in the day. With SCC on full rest, are the Braves a better team than Sturgeon? We’ll never know.
Then again, Sturgeon also played at Brunswick last night, although their drive today was much shorter. Excuses aside, I do know one thing: Sturgeon was the better team today, and there’s a chance the Bulldogs could run the table for the rest of the regular season.
Well, I’m out for the rest of the weekend. Check back on Monday for my Day One predictions for the 31st Annual Slater Wildcat Classic.
