Well-Nap gets revenge, beats Ellington in Class 2 girls basketball title-game rematch
SPRINGFIELD — There wasn’t much motivation that Andy Hampton needed this year after Wellington-Napoleon lost in the Class 2 girls championship game last year.
With four of seven players back from that team that lost 63-56 to Ellington in the championship last year, the fuel was there.
A chance for a rematch in Saturday’s championship was nice and it became almost poetic after a dominating 52-31 win at JQH Arena.
“It feels tremendous, you know we’ve had our motto as unfinished business all year long and it was meant specifically to get back to this moment,” Hampton said of the showdown of the top-ranked teams in the final Missouri Basketball Coaches Association poll. “And for us to play the same opponent we played last year … it just kind of all played out. It was easy to motivate these young ladies and I couldn’t be happier. I’m proud of them.”
This game had some parallel to last year’s finals. No 2-ranked Ellington (25-5) returned all five starters, while the top-ranked Tigers (28-2) had three back.
The start was similar as well, almost down to the point. Well-Nap surged ahead 8-2 last year before losing the lead. On Saturday, the Tigers jumped ahead 9-2 but this time they didn’t let up, taking a 19-9 lead after the opening frame.
Ayden Shannon had a pair of steals in the first quarter as the Tigers’ defense forced five turnovers — 10 of the 19 points came from turnovers.
“We knew there were gonna be really good shooters, so I was more working on trying to get them to drive and then if I needed help, I knew that our bigs would be in the lane helping,” said Shannon, who finished with 20 points, four rebounds and three blocks in the win.
The offense was more balanced in the second quarter, with the Tigers holding an 11-10 advantage and led by 11 going into the break.
The defensive pressure picked up in the second half and Wellington-Napoleon held Ellington to 0-for-15 from the field in the third quarter. The Lady Whippets (25-5) finished the second half hitting only 3 of 27 attempts from the field and was 21.2 percent for the game.
“I mean, we got it going with our defense,” Hampton said. “I mean, they really carried out our game plan awesome. We wanted people in certain spots and they got there and it showed. We were getting deflections. We got some steals.”
A key in the win was how the Tigers handled the Lady Whippets’ standouts that starred in last year’s final. The trio of Kaylee King, Laura Gore and Gretchen Hackworth all scored in double figures last year, accounting for 55 of the team’s 63 points in the win.
This time around, the trio had a combined 16 points and 14 of those were from King.
“Defensively, they played really well and had seven blocked shots and nine steals,” Ellington coach David Burrows said. “To start off with, we wanted to spread the floor a little bit. And I feel like there at times, you know, when someone would drive, I feel like our whole offense would kind of crowd the middle rather than keeping the spread out to make their defense work more and wear them down. So, I mean, they came prepared and they were ready for us and they defended it very well.
“I feel like they were a little hungry. I mean, they wanted more than we did. I mean obviously … but you know that goes without saying because we won it last year. We just could not get anything going offensively or defensively.”
Wellington-Napoleon got 46 of its 52 points from the trio Ayden Shannon, Bree Shannon and Kaylin Ellensohn. Bree Shannon had 16 points and led the Tigers with three assists and three steals. The Shannon twins have each committed to play at Division II William Jewell next year.
Ellensohn, a 6-foot-1 freshman center, was 5-for-5 from the field and scored 10 points. She added three blocks and nine rebounds.
Third-place game: Blue Eye 57, St. Paul Lutheran 19
The Bulldogs brought home their third straight third-place finish with a convincing win early Saturday morning at Hammons Student Center.
Blue Eye (27-6) allowed eight or less points to the Saints (23-7) in each quarter, ending the game by giving up only one in the fourth.
The dominating win had a rocky start though. JaeSi Hentges and Hailey Arnold hit back-to-back 3s for the Concordia private school to make it 6-0 a little more than a minute into the game. Blue Eye responded with a 14-0 run to take the lead. Senior Gracyn Fairchild hit a pair of 3s during the run.
The Saints trimmed the deficit to 15-12 after a jumper by Carly Fahrmeier midway through the second, but Blue Eye scored eight of the final 10 points in the half and led 23-14 at the break.
Blue Eye, ranked No. 4 in the state, put the game out of reach in the third quarter thanks to a 16-2 run, where five different players scored.
Riley Arnold had a game-high 17 points, hitting four 3-pointers, while adding four assists and four steals. Her twin, Avery, had 12 points, four rebounds and three steals.
Fairchild was third Bulldog in double figures, scoring 12, while adding five rebounds and a team-high five steals.
Adrien Martens, who averaged 23.5 points per game, was the top scorer for the Saints with seven.
