John Burroughs secures 1st state title
By Cody Thorn I Photos by Cheap Seats Photography
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — John Burroughs isn’t loaded with Division I talent and not a single player is taller than 5-foot-11.
But the No. 3-ranked Bombers secured the school’s first girls basketball title with a 54-46 win over St. Jospeh Benton on Saturday night at JQH Arena.
John Burroughs finished the year with 17 straight wins and got as many wins in one weekend that the school had in four previous trips to the Show-Me Showdown.
“I mean, all year we haven't been given the most love sometimes for the things we can do because we didn't fit the cookie cutter view of what championship programs look like,” John Burroughs coach Jacob Yorg said. “Well, we decided to just show everybody that you don't have to fit cookie cutters to be winners. We are all uniquely special. We are amazing athletes, multiple sports, high GPAs and we just won a state title and I just got to be on the sidelines for the ride. I really don't do anything. I tell people I just look pretty. They do all the work. So I couldn't be prouder.”
Yorg, wearing a bright pink suit, definitely stood out on the sideline but on the court sophomore Allie Turner took over late. Through three quarters, the 5-foot-7 guard had five points but went 10-for-12 from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. She finished with 19 points, one of three Bombers in double figures.
John Burroughs trailed by five in the third quarter before rallying and taking the lead on a late 3-pointer by Monet Witherspoon that made it 33-31 going into the fourth.
“At the beginning of the season, we would have definitely not come back from that,” Turner said of the deficit. “But now we've grown and we're on like a whatever game-winning streak … a 17 game-winning streak, but we just play as a team now instead of one on one when we're losing and that's what we did towards the second half which helped us.”
Benton and John Burroughs were tied three times in the fourth quarter but a layup by Witherspoon, who had 16, gave the Bombers (22-4) the lead for good.
No. 10-ranked Benton (25-6) pulled within a possession on three different occasions but never could forge tie No. 7 for the game.
Turner is a big reason why.
“Allie Turner … Here's the deal,” Benton coach Chris Michael said. “We tried to take her away. She won't go away. Like she keeps catching the ball. We put two girls on her and she still catches the ball. You know, so that's a good player. Right?”
The Bombers hit 11-of-15 free throws in the final 1:40 to seal the win.
John Burroughs will return every player from this roster as the starting five featured a junior, three sophomores and a freshman.
Yorg, in his first year at the helm, had the entire team up on the podium in the postgame press conference. A top of conversation was the pink suit, which he promised his team he would wear if they beat St. James in the semifinals on Friday.
“I already can guarantee I have 30 text messages making fun of my suit, not saying congrats,” said Yorg, a former college assistant coach at Maryville University and head coach at Wisconsin-Parkside. “But it's more, as I said yesterday, it’s more that they're special. And as a coach, if you have a special group of young women, you can't just do things normal. I can't just wear a black suit with a tie. I mean, who does that? At Burroughs we like to wear pink suits and blue shirts ... but I mean it's just more about them and they just are fun because they like to have fun. They are goofballs and like to have fun.”
The Cardinals had two players in double figures. Senior guard Jaida Cox, who averaged 9.7 points per game, tallied 20 in the loss. Kelsey Johnson had 12 – four above her average.
Benton was in the finals for the third time in school history and lost for the first time. This marked the first time in the program’s storied history they went to state in consecutive years.
“They've done something that has never been done in Benton history and Benton is pretty storied,” said Michaels, an alum of the school in the south side of St. Joseph. “They've got a lot of banners in their gym. When you walk in our gym the girls get to see that and you know, they've come back-to-back state tournaments and we took fourth last year and obviously second this year. These girls have changed the culture of Benton girls basketball, in the sense of how much they love each other.”
Third-place game
Helias Catholic 51, St. James 40
The Crusaders turned a one-point halftime lead into a double-digit lead in the third quarter and rolled to a win in the third-place game on Saturday morning at JQH Arena.
Helias Catholic (22-8) closed the third on an 8-1 run and to build a 10-point lead going into the fourth. The scoring burst carried into the fourth, 6-0, to build a 40-24 advantage with 5 minutes to play.
The trophy was the second for the Crusaders’ program, the first since taking second in 1995.
Future Missouri State Bear Adalynn Koelling scored 16 points and added 11 rebounds for Helias ranked No. 8.
The leader offensively, though, was reserve Gabrielle Bax. The 5-foot-6 guard that averaged 8 points a game scored 22 and had 11 rebounds. The senior hit 10 of 18 shots from the field and three 3-pointers.
No. 7-ranked St. James (25-7) didn’t have a single player in double figures. Junior guard Livi Herron accounted for nine.
