Unbeaten Saxony Lutheran girls basketball team begins postseason crusade

The undefeated Saxony Lutheran Crusaders girls basketball team begins its playoff quest Saturday at Scott City High School.

Saxony enters the Class 3 District 2 tournament as the top-ranked team in the Class 3 Missouri Basketball Coaches Association poll, but coach Sam Sides knows every opponent will be giving its best shot.

"You've always got to be ready to play every night because we know it's going to be tough competition," said Sides, who led the Crusaders to their firs final four last season. "I know Arcadia Valley's got a good, solid team. They've only lost a couple games all year. ... Our possible second game could be Kelly or Clearwater. They've had some good teams the past couple of years, so you've got to be ready to play."

The top-seeded Crusaders will face eighth-seeded East Prairie at 9 a.m., followed by a matchup between No. 2 Arcadia Valley and seventh-seeded Scott City at 10:30 a.m.

Sides said his team's approach is no different than any other team.

"We try to take it one game at a time and try to do the things that we do well. We share the ball well. We can shoot the ball well. We've been rebounding the ball well. Defensively, we've really come together and played solid defense almost every game," Sides said. "We need to keep doing that and keep getting better."

No. 4 Kelly and fifth-seeded Clearwater will play at 6 p.m., while No. 3 Charleston is scheduled to take on sixth-seeded Woodland at 3 p.m.

Sides said his players had one of their better games last weekend with a resounding 54-12 victory over host Lutheran North.

"We expected that to be a pretty tough opponent. I know one of their guards is being recruited by some Division I schools, and we really just played outstanding defense. It turned out to be a lot easier of a win than I had anticipated," Sides said. "We were ready for that challenge. It seems like the tougher the games are, we kind of rise to the occasion. We want to keep that going."

The semifinals are slated for 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Monday. The championship will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday.

<a href="http://www.semoball.com/bracket/1804/">Class 1 District 2

Top-seeded Oran will open tournament play at 2:30 p.m. Saturday against No. 4 The Fulton School at St. Albans at Bell City High School.

Oran coach Ethan Evans said he feels like his team is where it needs to be heading into the tournament.

"Defensively, we've played very well all year," Evans said. "I told our girls at the beginning of the year that that would be the key to our success. We've missed a couple games this week like everyone else because of the snow.

"We had a good game last week against East Prairie, and we finally got our leading scorer, Allie [Cummins], back. We missed her for nine games. ... Having her back, I think we're going in the right direction."

No. 2 Delta will take on third-seeded St. Paul Lutheran at 1:15 p.m. The winner from both games will meet in the championship at 6 p.m. Thursday.

"I don't know a whole lot about two of the teams. Delta we've played twice this year. They can come out and play pretty well at times. You've got to kind of be fearful of them," Evans said.

<a href="http://www.semoball.com/bracket/1805/">Class 2 District 1

Chaffee enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed and will take on No. 4 Campbell at 6 p.m. Monday at Bloomfield High School.

Second-seeded Scott County Central will take on third-seeded South Pemiscot at 7:15 p.m., while the championship is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday.

<a href="http://www.semoball.com/bracket/1807/">Class 2 District 3

Fourth-seeded Meadow Heights and fifth-seeded Ellington will square off in the first round at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Bismarck High School.

Other first-round games are No. 1 Viburnum and eighth-seeded Valle Catholic at 5:30 p.m.; second-seeded Bismarck and No. 7 Kingston at 10 a.m.; and No. 3 Valley and sixth-seeded St. Vincent at 3 p.m.

The semifinals will take place at 6 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Monday, and the championship is scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday.