Missouri Class 3 girls basketball semifinals: El Dorado Springs holds on to beat Stafford; South Shelby runs past South County

Story and photo by Cody Thorn 

SPRINGFIELD — El Dorado Springs is back in the state title game, and the names that helped get the program to the first appearance are the same names this time around.

The Class 3 No. 1-ranked Bulldogs rode the one-two punch of Reese Schaaf and Macie Mays to pick up a 46-44 win over No. 2-ranked Strafford on Thursday in the Show-Me Showdown at JQH Arena.

Strafford missed a shot at the buzzer that would’ve won the game had it gone in, but instead El Dorado Springs survived.

El Dorado Springs won the 2014 Class 3 championship behind the standout play of Alexa Schaaf, Kameron Schaaf and Madison Mays – the older sisters.

“I know it is exciting, the sisters played in that championship game and really all the girls I have in here, you can find of photo of them when they were in fourth or fifth grade and how much it means to them (to be in the championship game) … it’s a dream,” El Dorado Springs coach Beau Swopes said.

The contest was competitive as you would expect with teams the coaches thought were the two best in the state meeting in the semifinals. The game was tied at 23 at halftime before the Indians (24-6) struck first on a 3-pointer by Laney Humble only 28 seconds into the second half. That turned out to be the final lead for the Springfield-area school.

From there, El Dorado Springs (28-3) outscored the foes 13-4 over the final six minutes of the third quarter. Mays accounted for six of her 15 points in the quarter and gave her team a 36-30 lead.

El Dorado Springs never lost the lead in the final quarter, though Strafford pulled within a point on three different occasions. The last was after a 3-pointer by Humble – who had a team-high 18 points – with 1:57 left to play.

That made it 42-41 and then the victory was essentially sealed thanks to rebounding. Mays hit one of two free throws, but her miss was rebounded by Reese Schaaf. That led to another foul by Strafford and two more free throws, with Mays hitting 1 of 2 again, pushing the lead to 44-41.

“They were huge rebounds, I knew we needed the ball,” said Schaaf, who had a double-double with 19 points and 17 rebounds – seven less than Strafford had as a team.

Schaaf was fouled with 40 seconds left and hit two free throws to push the lead to 46-41.

Lauren Jones hit a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left for Strafford to pull within two points and incidentally the final score. El Dorado Springs drew a foul with nine seconds left but missed both shots.

That gave the Indians a chance and a 3-pointer at the buzzer hit the rim and fell to the court.

“They got a great look at the end,” Swopes said. “Defensively we did some good things and they came out and got a great look. For that kid and that moment, you feel bad because that kid laid everything out there. At the same time, you are excited for all of our kids and your team, the coaches and the community.”

The 3-point attempt was the 26th in the game for Strafford, which made 10 of them. El Dorado Springs was only 3-for-20 in its attempts from beyond the arc.

The two teams met on Jan. 31 and perhaps in some foreshadowing, the Bulldogs won by two – 55-53.

El Dorado Springs takes a 13-game winning streak into the finals against South Shelby at 2 p.m. today.

“We will come out and do what we do, just build off this win and carry momentum forward,” said Macie Mays, who had a team-high four assists and grabbed four rebounds.

South Shelby 45, West County 31

The Ladybirds overcame some offensive struggles in the first half and rallied for a win over the Bulldogs in the first semifinal game on Thursday. 

South Shelby is back in the state title game for the fourth time in program history and the first since 2008. However, the only title the school from Shelbina has brought home was in 1974 – the second year MSHSAA had a girls basketball championship bracket.

Regardless of the outcome in the title game, the winning school will add a second state championship plaque to the trophy case.

West County, a Show-Me Showdown newcomer, came out hot and took a 17-9 lead into the locker room.

Neither team shot particularly well, with West County (24-5) hitting five of 13 shots and the Ladybirds were 3 of 25 – a 12 percent clip and was 1-for-10 from the 3-point line.

“At the beginning I tried not to think (too much) but I felt a little off, I felt my shots were short and I figured once the adrenaline kicked in I would be OK,” South Shelby junior guard Miranda Patterson said. “In the first half we weren’t shooting well and I was thinking what do I need to do to fix it? Turned out it was my elbow, I fixed (the angle) and I hit some shots.”

Patterson was 2-for-8 in the first half but hit 5 of her next 8 attempts and scored a game-high 20 points.

The Ladybirds (25-4) opened the second half on a 15-2 run, starting with a 3-pointer by Patterson with just more than 7 minutes to play in the third quarter. After missing a jumper, she knocked down another 3-pointer. A steal by Kaylee Gaines led to a 3-pointer by Emma Dovin and the 7-point deficit was cut down to one in less than two minutes.

A layup by Patterson with 2:54 left in the third gave South Shelby the lead back, the first since it was 3-2 in the first quarter.

“I challenged the girls at halftime and there has not been a lot of games we had to do that but this was one of those,” South Shelby coach Luke O’Laughlin said. “Boy, did they do a heck of a job responding. They came out and played to win instead of playing not to lose. There is a huge difference. We’ve had to win ugly several times this year against some really good teams. We knew today would be one of those because West County is so solid defensively. We were able to keep it ugly until it started looking pretty in the second half. Once it started clicking, it was clicking pretty good.”

West County got a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third by senior Claire Taylor to cut the deficit down to 26-22.

A 10-0 run to open the fourth sealed the win and gave South Shelby – winners of 11 straight – a 14-point cushion with less than 6 minutes to play. Patterson had five of the points, while Hannah Wegman hit a 3-pointer as well.

South Shelby, after shooting 12 percent in the first half, hit 51.9 from the field in the second half.

West County never trailed by single digits the rest of the way. Junior Lillian James led the Bulldogs with nine points, all on 3-pointers.

“This is bonus basketball to me, that is what I told the girls,” West County coach Bobby Simily said. “I know they are disappointed and we had long faces in the locker room. They wanted to play for a state championship, as I wanted to play for a state championship, but we played for third before. We played for third (in the conference tournament) earlier this year and I thought our effort was really good and we won against a really good basketball team. We will enjoy this evening. I will watch the next game and talk about how we will try to defend and what we can do to win the next one.”