Woodland hoops celebrate seniors, prepare for postseason with gritty doubleheader battles

MARBLE HILL — Woodland High School hosted an impromptu boys-girls basketball doubleheader on Monday, Feb. 24, in preparation for their respective district tournaments in Marble Hill, Mo.

Both Risco and Neelyville are both not just named the Tigers, but also enter their respective district tournaments as the top seed. So while the first round of the boys' tournament is currently taking place and the girls' tournament starting on Tuesday, the Cardinals were able to reschedule games against similar completion to make up for what was lost by the recent snow storm last week and remain sharp for the postseason.

The gym was packed to celebrate the Woodland seniors’ final game on their home court. It’s a fact of life not unique to small towns across America that the coaches have seen their seniors grow from the days they first dribble a basketball in their elementary age.

"That's what makes us so special," Woodland boys' basketball coach Shawn Kinder said. "A lot of these kids have good families, good support, and they're just behind them all the time. And that's what it takes for us to make a run at districts"

Korbin Kinder led the Cardinals with 22 points, and Calvin Layton scored 16 points in a 77-67 loss against Risco. All five Woodland seniors started the game for the Cardinals, led by Lane Lee, who finished the game with 13 points.

"The thing about Lane Lee that a lot of people don't realize is he's really developed into the floor leader," Kinder said. "Lane has just done a tremendous job just being the point guard and being the four general for us, and I can't express that growth that he's had this year enough. He's really developed into that and accepted that role for us."

Risco opened the game on a 13-2 run and finished the first quarter with a 24-9 lead. The Cardinals flipped the momentum in the second quarter and outscored Risco 21-8 to go into halftime trailing 32-30.

A basket by Kinder gave Woodland a 51-50 lead in the final minute of the third quarter, but Risco responded and retook the lead at the end of the quarter, up 52-51.

The Risco trio of Owen Fortner (nine points), Sammy Smith (eight points), and Reiley Calvert (eight points) led the way for a 25-16 fourth quarter and ultimately the game. Fortner and Smith each led the team with 21 points, while Calvert added 16 points.

Risco finished the regular season with a 24-3 record, an improvement over last season, and the top seed in the Class 1 District 1 Tournament. While losing this game doesn't affect Woodland's positioning in their district tournament, it was a good learning opportunity for a Cardinals team that has been more used to routing opponents.

"We knew Risko was tough," Kinder said. "We stressed the schedule this year. We've toughened this schedule up big time, playing the Charlestons and Puxicos and Kennetts and then Cape on the schedule, we've seen them in the Christmas tournament, and Scott City. There really wasn't an easy non-conference game. I mean, there really wasn't, and we've done that for a purpose. We thought tonight was good. We've not been behind in a lot of games. So fighting the crawl back into those games is growth. That's learning, and we talked about that a little bit because we knew it was going to be a dog fight."

The Lady Cardinals fell to Neelyville 71-51 to start the doubleheader, which was a rescheduled game that was affected by winter weather.

Neelyville enters the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the Class 2 District 2 Tournament, and the Tigers proved why with a 30-point third quarter to turn a close contest into a full-blown rout.

That third-quarter rally was led by Parker Ernst, who provided 11 of her 19 points during the period. Jade Crosswhite scored 11 points and Makynli Day added 10 points for the Neelyville, who have won three straight games to bounce back from losing to Doniphan in the OFC Tournament championship round.

"Neelyville is outstanding, and they've got a lot of weapons, and I thought that we competed well," Woodland girls basketball coach Paul Lynch said. "We're not real deep, and we're a little banged up, but we've tried to play a really tough schedule to prepare us for districts, and I think that we're ready to go."

The Lady Cardinals are looking to return to the state tournament after missing out last year for the first time in the last four years. They are led by senior Mallory Barks and sophomore Addyson Massa, who scored a team-high 19 points against Neelyville.

"Mallory is a senior, so she's been on this stage before for four years now, and of course, she's a leader. We count on her for a lot," Lynch said. "Addie stepped up as a sophomore, and it does a lot of things for us. Johnson's a senior who's been really consistent this year for us. We've got Ella Cook, a freshman guard who's been thrown into it. Maci McIntyre is a senior guard who's got years of experience. We've got a good mix. It's just we've battled injuries, we've battled weather consistency this year but now everybody's 0-0."

The Lady Cardinals will take on the winner between Scott City and West County in the semifinal round of the Class 3 District 2 Tournament on Thursday, Feb. 27.

The Cardinals will take on Greenville in the Class 3 District 2 Tournament semifinals on Wednesday, Feb. 26.