Holiday Hoops Invite: Blue Springs South 44, Eureka 41

The Blue Springs South Lady Jaguars trailed for just 12 seconds Saturday afternoon, posting a 44-41 win against the Eureka Lady Wildcats in the fifth-place game of the State Farm Holiday Hoops Invitational.

Eureka took its only lead of the game at 3-2 on a three-point play by Kate Hillyer just 43 seconds into the contest, but Kaylee Connors had an answer with a quick 3-pointer, and Blue Springs South played from in front the rest of the way.

But that's not to say it was easy, even though the Lady Jaguars had several chances to pull away.

They took their biggest lead of the first quarter at 12-5 on a 3 by Connors and were up 16-10 at the end of the quarter.

Blue Springs South then took its biggest lead of the opening half at 25-12 midway through the second quarter thanks to a 9-0 run that included a jumper and a layup by Lauren Gillig, followed by two free throws from Eden Tolliver and a 3 by Gillig.

The lead was 29-18 at halftime and the Lady Jaguars took their biggest edge of the game when Connors drained a 3 with 5:31 left in the third that made it 34-20.

But the tide started to turn when the right-handed-shooting Hillyer hit a nifty left-handed 3 on the run to barely beat the buzzer at the end of the third, getting Eureka within 38-30.

The Lady Wildcats kept chipping away in the final period and when Claire Martin hit two free throws with 2:05 left, Blue Springs South's lead was down to 40-39.

Eureka then missed a 3 that would have given it the lead, and then trailing by 41-39 in the final minute, the Lady Wildcats missed two more potential go-ahead 3s.

Connors ended up with a game-high 14 points and Derrian Ford added 10 for Blue Springs South (4-5). Both made the all-tournament team.

Hillyer paced Eureka (5-5) with 13 points, while Lauren Glascock had 10. Annika Herbert, the Lady Wildcats' representative on the all-tournament team, scored seven.