ST. JAMES, Mo. - The preliminaries are over. It's time for the main event.
The Fatima Lady Comets and St. James Lady Tigers advanced to the title game of the Class 3 District 9 Tournament with semifinal wins Wednesday night. St. James (25-2) is No. 3 in the latest Class 3 state poll released Wednesday, while Fatima (25-2) is No. 5.
Fatima, the No. 2 seed, defeated the Cuba Wildcats 61-30 in its semifinal.
The Lady Comets led 20-12 after the first quarter and slowly pulled away. It was 32-17 in favor of Fatima at the half and the Lady Comets led 48-21 after three quarters.
Morgan Brandt led Fatima with 19 points. Annie Bock added 18.
Top-seeded St. James was a 67-21 winner against Eugene in Wednesday night's first game.
St. James led 24-5 after one quarter and 49-8 at the half. Ashlee Mariatt had 18 points for the winners.
Lexi Dickerson finished with 12 points for Eugene, which ends the season at 11-15.
The title game is scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Friday.