Woodland girls rally in second, blast past streaking Bravettes in FSCB quarterfinals

In the second game in two days, No. 4 Woodland used its hard-hitting backcourt press to turn an early competitive game over and into a routing 73-44 victory over No. 5 Scott County Central in the First State Community Bank Holiday Classic quarterfinals.

Tied after the first quarter, a hobbled Nikki Adams and her Bravettes squad couldn’t hold a candle to the fast, fluent and gritty Cardinals defensive attack as they stole the match away from Scott County Central at Saxony Lutheran High School.

“It feels good,” Cardinals coach Paul Lynch began. “The girls are working hard. We’re improving.

“We still have a long way to go, but they battled. We’re where we're supposed to be, so hopefully we can continue it.”

Led by the 1-2 punch of sophomore Addyson Massa and senior Mallary Barks once again, Woodland never failed to put the ball in the basket and took advantage of a seemingly unspirited Bravettes squad with a semifinal berth on the line.

Those two have both made an All-Tournament résumé through the first two games, proving to be a quintessential part of what makes Woodland so spectacular this tournament.

They’ve led Woodland’s young core to become one of the most revered teams in the field so far, and now with six wins under their belt, the Cardinals only continue to heat up going into their biggest matchup of the year to date.

“There’s a good mixture there,” Lynch said. “We've got some young kids that are competing hard and a couple of seniors that that have been around a little bit too who are stepping their game up.

“It's good to see them blending together.”

Woodland improves its record to 6-2 for the season, emerging from a tight matchup with a heavy victory to take its most impressive win of the season to date, crushing S.C.C. to guarantee a top-four finish in the tournament.

Massa’s 24 points led the Cardinals, while Barks added 19 and Tallie Johnson added 18, with the top line of Woodland all finishing near the 20-point mark in a monstrous offensive performance.

Scott County Central drops to 6-3 on the season, getting an impressive win over the Kelly Hawks on Saturday but couldn’t keep the pace while shorthanded on Sunday afternoon, dropping into the fifth-place bracket.

Bella Shelton led the Bravettes with 13 points in the loss, while Camarie Perdue and Ellie Britt added 10 and 9 points respectively.

Scott County Central drops into the fifth-place bracket, taking on No. 8 Perryville at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at the Show Me Center, while Woodland ventures into the semifinals against top-seeded Jackson at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in Cape Girardeau.

The Cardinals, like most, know just how great Jackson can be and are giving the Indians their due diligence, ready to make a concerted effort at a berth in Friday’s championship game.

“Well, Jackson's got an oustanding team,” Lynch said. “They're very deep, they come at you a lot of different ways, they shoot the ball well. We're gonna have to limit turnovers, take care of the ball and we're gonna have to cut harder than we have been.

“Really take care of the ball offensively against the press, get into our sets and hopefully be able to to limit their offensive attempts.”

The match started out about as tight as you could ask for, with the sides trading leads all through the first quarter but wrapping up with a 14-14 tie after a steal-and-score bucket from Addyson Massa of Woodland in the final seconds.

Pressure from the Cardinals got to Scott County Central in the second quarter, undoing a once-strong Bravettes attack with steal after steal as Woodland pushed out to a 39-25 halftime lead, putting the fifth-seeded S.C.C. on the ropes.

Returning Adams for the second half, the Bravettes showed sparks at times but still had no answer for Woodland’s sets, with the Cardinals cruising to a 73-44 victory to move into a semifinal date with Jackson.