Osage girls down Blair Oaks 37-25 to win tourney title

ASHLAND, Mo. - Saturday's Tri-County Tournament championship game between Blair Oaks and School of the Osage became the battle of the zone defenses.

With the shots not falling for Blair Oaks, Osage got the better of the Lady Falcons to win 37-25 at Southern Boone.

"If you would have told me we would hold them to 37 points, I would have taken that," Blair Oaks coach Darren Heckman said.

The Lady Falcons held their opponent to 37 points or less 10 times last season. Of course, they won all 10.

But that wasn't enough Saturday as Blair Oaks scored nine points in the first half and its largest run was 6-0 in a 20-second span in the third quarter to tie the game at 15.

"It felt like we scored 20 points," Heckman said. "It brought a little life to the bench and to the team and then we just couldn't get in a rhythm."

After Kayla Jones drained a 3-pointer off a Blair Oaks steal with 3:33 left in the third quarter, Osage scored seven straight points before a Makenna Kliethermes basket made it 22-17 heading to the fourth quarter.

Brooke Boessen pulled the Lady Falcons within three by scoring the first points of the final quarter and Bailey Rissmiller made it 24-21 with a pair of free throws with 5:02 left, but an 11-0 run for Osage sealed it for the Lady Indians.

Osage's final points of the game came with 26 seconds left when Kerrigan Gamm drove in for a layup, reaching 1,000 points in the senior's career.

Gamm scored a game-high 13 points, making 7-of-11 free throws.

Carson Wood made 5-of-8 shots for 12 points.

Claire Heckman led Blair Oaks with eight points and also had five steals. Boessen finished with six points and eight rebounds.

"She carries us a lot," coach Heckman said of Boessen. " Sometimes you've just got to have somebody else help out. The girls were trying. I'm not upset at all at the effort. The ball just wouldn't go in."

Blair Oaks did lead 7-4 after the first quarter thanks to a steal and 3-pointer by Heckman in the final seconds.

Blair Oaks' lone score in the second quarter was a Boessen layup with 5:15 left.

"I thought we got good shots in the first quarter and then got a snowball effect," Heckman said. "Nothing was going in and we lost some confidence. I've got to do a better job of figuring out how to get us a basket there."

Osage struggled in the second quarter as well and only led 11-9 at halftime.

"I thought we executed what we wanted to do," Heckman said. "We played zone for the most part. We thought that way we could keep them in front and try to keep them off the free-throw line."

But as the game started to get away in the second half, the free throws piled up for the Lady Indians, who made 15-of-24 at the line.

Osage also outrebounded Blair Oaks 35-25. Payton Good finished with a game-high 13 rebounds.

"They are a well coached team," Heckman said. "They were really solid. A lot of times we can get the ball up on the rim and get some offensive rebounds, and we had very few of those."

Blair Oaks (2-2) will host Fulton on Monday. The freshman game will start at 5 p.m. with the junior varsity and varsity contests following. Varsity will start around 7:30 p.m.

"We won't have to wait too long to get back on the floor, which is good," Heckman said. "The rims are better, hopefully, at Blair Oaks."