Calvary girls fall 54-38

Shortly after the Calvary Lutheran and Lutheran: Kansas City girls basketball teams jostled for third place in the Calvary Lutheran Tournament in Jefferson City, Lady Knight sophomore Mackenzie Klatt sank 12 treys to win the tournament's 3-point contest.

The sight was a familiar one for the Lady Lions.

Klatt made three of Lutheran: Kansas City's 10 first-half 3s as the Lady Knights rolled to a 54-38 defeat of Calvary Lutheran on Saturday.

In addition to Klatt, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Hope Kunkel, Haley Reifsteck, Joelle Hick and Sarah Steensma drained 3-pointers for the Lady Knights in the first half.

"I've never seen that before," Calvary Lutheran coach Jonathan Kueck said. "Six different girls who can shoot. I've never played a team with that many shooters."

All but seven of the Lady Knights' 37 first-half shots came from behind the arc.

"We knew that it would be tough to guard 3s in the zone, so we switched over to man-to-man defense," Kueck said, "but we just weren't able to fight through the screens."

The Lady Knights missed each of their eight second-half 3-point attempts but were still able to build a 27-point lead by the end of the third quarter.

Kunkel led the Lady Knights with 15 points. Klatt finished with 11, and eight points scored for the Lutheran: Kansas City.

"They had a deeper bench," Kueck said.

Turnovers were an issue for both teams; Calvary Lutheran had 29, and Lutheran: Kansas City had 21. The Lady Lions forced 10 takeaways in the fourth quarter alone and outscored the Lady Knights 13-2.

Becca Thompson led the Lady Lions with 12 points, and Sam Gunn had eight rebounds.

Earlier in the day, Calvary Lutheran fell to Metro East Lutheran, 51-29, to miss a shot at the championship game.

"We clawed back, but we couldn't fight through the pressure," Kueck said.

Kueck was happy with his team's fourth-place performance in its home tournament. Even in the losses, he saw some positive signs.

"When we're doing the things we worked on in practice, things go all right," he said.

The Lady Lions (4-8) play 6 p.m. Tuesday at Bunceton.

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