By Nolan Epstein/For OzarksSportsZone.com
Thursday night was a sweeping success for Walnut Grove basketball as the boys and girls programs both recorded victories in their district final showdowns at Willard High School. Both teams await their opponents for the sectional round on Tuesday.
Lady Tigers cruise past Wheaton for 7th straight district crown
One of the proudest basketball traditions in the Ozarks grew a little bit more on Thursday.
Thanks to a scorching hot start, smothering defense and an impressive showing from senior Raylie Hejna, the No. 1 seed Walnut Grove Lady Tigers (25-4) made it seven consecutive district titles with a loud 64-29 win over the second-seeded Wheaton Lady Bulldogs (13-15).
PHOTOS: WALNUT GROVE VS. WHEATON
Head coach Rory Henry’s team wasted absolutely no time taking any hopes of an upset out of the mind of Wheaton – scoring 25 of the game’s first 27 points and yielding just two first-quarter field goals to the Lady Bulldogs, who saw starting sophomore Rachel Lacey exit the game after suffering an injury in the opening seconds.
“I’ve been kind of on them about being a little bit more focused and tonight they were,” Henry said of his club. “Everything was complete focus. They came out on the floor ready to go.”
With the Lady Tigers boasting a 25-7 lead after eight minutes of play, Walnut Grove remained in high gear and managed to outscore Wheaton 18-3 in the second quarter to take a 43-10 advantage into the locker room.
Eighteen of those 43 points came off the hand of Hejna, who used her size advantage to muscle her way inside and regularly convert from point-blank range.
“She really just had a lot of energy,” Henry said of the Hejna, who stands at 6-feet tall and collected a game-high 22 points. “She had a bounce in her step, just really got up and down the floor and posted hard. When she does that, she’s hard to guard by anybody, I don’t care who it is.”
The tall senior created a strong connection with junior teammate Bayley Harman, who was able to find a cutting Hejna on a consistent basis and rack up the assists.
“Bailey did a really good job tonight of getting the ball and seeing me when I was open,” Hejna said. “I’m really proud of her.”
The Lady Tigers, who held Wheaton to its second lowest scoring output of the season, have tweaked their approach in games as they look to snag another state championship after suffering a heartbreaker to Naylor in the Final Four a season ago.
“Having played in the third-place game [last year], it really changed our aspect of every game we’re going to play now because we know that we know that it’s not handed to you anymore,” Hejna added following the victory. “We got beat against Naylor, so now we go and we try to get things done in the first half, and then we can kind of slow down and figure things out.”
Wheaton – 7 3 16 3 – 29
Walnut Grove – 25 18 15 6 – 64
Wheaton – Tori Goostree 10, Hannah Lombard 7, Hallie Mitchell 6, Samantha Sherwood 4, Alyia Prewitt 2
Walnut Grove – Raylie Hejna 22, Bayley Harman 12, Grace McPhail 10, Myranda McVay 9, Kylee Verbeck 4, Taylor Dodson 3, Grace Miller 2, Aspen White 2
Thomazin, Tigers pull away late from Greenfield
Shortly after the girls program notched its seventh consecutive district crown, the top-seeded Walnut Grove boys made it three straight district titles of their own with a 67-51 triumph over the No. 2 seed Greenfield Wildcats in a battle of state-ranked teams in Class 1.
The Tigers (26-3), who enjoyed a 20-point victory over Greenfield (24-4) back on Dec. 6, came up big on defense in the final eight minutes – collecting key stops while draining 19 of 24 free throws down the stretch after holding just a three-point edge heading into the fourth.
“I think we showed a lot of resilience,” Walnut Grove head coach Darin Meinders said. “I thought our kids played hard and we had kids step up. Honestly, I think when you’ve played in the games and played the schedule that we have, our kids were used to that stage.”
Things went positively enough from Meinders’ team in the early going as junior Logan Thomazin banked in a buzzer-beating 3-ball as time expired in the first quarter to open up a 19-13 lead.
GAME PHOTOS: GREENFIELD VS. WALNUT GROVE
After going up by as many as nine points with a Ryan Keith 3-pointer at the 7:22 mark of the second period, Walnut Grove started to go stagnant on offense – scoring just five more points the rest of the half.
The offensive struggles would continue in the second half of play – ultimately allowing the Wildcats to get within one point at 38-37 late in the third on a free throw by junior forward Colin White.
“That’s the worst game we’ve ever shot and we still pulled out a 15-point win against a Class 1 state-ranked team,” Thomazin said. “The adrenaline kind of got the best of us, but we did all right.”
As is the case with almost any team that’s used to playing in big games and pressure-filled situations, Walnut Grove knew just who to turn to with everything on the line.
Thomazin, who bagged 28 points to lead all scorers, tallied 15 points in the fourth quarter and shot a grand total of eleven free throws in the final segment, while making eight of them.
“I’m just glad they all trusted me,” Thomazin said of his team. “They kept putting the ball in my hands.”
Walnut Grove outscored Greenfield 27-14 in the final quarter – sending the Tiger faithful, which represented the vast majority of fans in attendance on Thursday, into pure jubilance as their squad notched another big victory for the program.
“You’re not going to find a better community as far as support and following,” Meinders said. “It makes a difference. You can hear when we get on a run, it gets pretty loud. We’re lucky we have two great programs and our fans are lucky to be able to enjoy that.”
Greenfield – 13 10 14 14 – 51
Walnut Grove – 19 8 12 28 – 67
Greenfield – Marcus Wright 17, Colin White 14, Mason Jones 11, Jalen Roby 6, Hayden Sims 3
Walnut Grove – Logan Thomazin 28, Hunter Gilkey 16, Ryan Keith 8, Dawson Meinders 8, Jaron Dishman 6, Kyle Keith 2
