Ava defeats host Strafford in tournament championship game

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By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

Ava continues to shed its label as a football school.

With the rise of the boys’ basketball program, the Bears are upgrading to the “all sports” label.

“Someone asked me the other day, ‘How does it feel to coach at a football school?’” said Ava head coach Damon Seiger. “We love our football, but we just love athletics in general at Ava. As much as we root for our football team, the football coach (Dan Swofford) was here rooting for us tonight.

“We really believe in ‘success breeds success.’ We’ve had success and we believe we’ll have more.”

The Bears have shown minimal football-to-basketball rust in the 2021-22 school year, as evident by their performance in this week’s Stafford Invitational.

Ava, a two-time defending district champion, dominated host Strafford 68-57 in Saturday’s championship game.

In a matchup of state-ranked teams, the Bears led by 19 at halftime and maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half.

“We had a good gameplan,” said Ava senior Andrew Dalton, who scored a game-high 29. “We talked about playing our game and not getting overwhelmed with Strafford’s speed, because they’re such an athletic team and have size across the board.”

Ava, ranked No. 9 in Class 4, jumped out to a 20-8 lead after the first quarter and led 43-24 at halftime. The Bears made seven 3-pointers in the first half.

“We’re pride ourselves in establishing our low-post game. Tonight, it was kind of the opposite of that,” Seiger said. “We hit some perimeter shots. As you saw in the second half, with Strafford’s pressure, that opened up some things for us around the basket. We try to not be one-dimensional and capable of beating you in multiple ways.”

With Ava’s deep postseason run in football – the Bears lost to Lamar in the state quarterfinals just two weeks ago – the Bears haven’t had many practices with their full squad.

Two of those football players, Carter Mahan and Blayne Mendel, combined for 17 points on Saturday to give Ava scoring balance behind Dalton’s big night.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME

Ethan Donley and Corey Heinlein scored 10 apiece.

“Half the battle we’ve faced the last two years is trying not to be a one-trick pony,” Seiger said. “That balanced scoring is a testament to those other guys. If teams put a lot of emphasis on Andrew, we need to have other people who can step up and score. You saw some of that tonight.”

Since Seiger took over in 2019, Ava has gone 50-12 overall with back-to-back district championships. Dalton, a four-year starter, has been there for the highs and lows.

“We went through his first season and you could tell there was just a different mentality with the team, compared to the year before,” said Dalton, who is Ava’s career scoring leader. “Our focus was greater than it ever had been. We knew something special could happen.”

Strafford (No. 2-ranked in Class 3) cut a 20-point deficit down to 10 early in the fourth quarter. Ava shot 9-for-14 at the free throw line in the fourth and 17-for-22 overall.

The victory boosts Ava’s resume heading into next week’s Blue and Gold Tournament seeding.

“This is a tough place to play,” Seiger said. “I felt like we kind of took (Strafford) and their fans out of it early based on our play in the first half. I’m proud of our guys.”

A.K. Rael led Strafford (2-1 overall) with 24 points in the loss.

Ava (3-0 overall) hosts Hollister on Tuesday night. Strafford plays at Kickapoo the same night.

Ava 68, Strafford 57
Ava 20 23 10 15 — 68
Strafford 8 16 16 17 — 57

Ava – Andrew Dalton 29, Ethan Donley 10, Corey Heinlein 10, Carter Mahan 10, Blayne Mendel 7, Quin Breeding 2
Strafford – A.K. Rael 24, Seth Soden 14, Logan Fraker 6, Teagan Lawler 4, Jacob Semple 3, J.D. Hunt 3, Elliott Goings 2, Avery Voysey 1

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