Lady Jays romp past Hickman, 68-20

Jefferson City teammates Caitlin Anderson (right) and Hannah Nilges battle Emma Chapman of Hickman for control of the ball during Friday night's semifinal game in the State Farm Holiday Hoops Invitational at Rackers Fieldhouse.
Jefferson City teammates Caitlin Anderson (right) and Hannah Nilges battle Emma Chapman of Hickman for control of the ball during Friday night's semifinal game in the State Farm Holiday Hoops Invitational at Rackers Fieldhouse.

The Jefferson City Lady Jays closed the first quarter with a 9-0 run.

OK.

The Lady Jays opened the second quarter with a 22-0 run.

Oh, my.

"We've had some big runs, but nothing like that," Jefferson City coach Brad Conway said Friday night after the Lady Jays rolled to a 68-20 victory against the Hickman Kewpies in the semifinals of the State Farm Holiday Hoops Invitational at Rackers Fieldhouse.

With the win, Jefferson City (11-0, ranked No. 1 in Class 5) will face St. Joseph Benton (9-0, ranked No. 6 in Class 4) for the Invitational title at 5:30 p.m. today. Benton defeated Helias 43-29 in Friday night's second semifinal.

A layup by Caitlin Anderson with 5:20 remaining in the first quarter extended Jefferson City's lead against Hickman to 5-2. Anderson's layup with 1:47 remaining in the second quarter closed the 31-0 barrage to give the Lady Jays a 34-2 advantage.

"Once we got rolling, we executed pretty well," Conway said.

It was an energetic start for Jefferson City, in contrast to what Conway saw in Thursday's first-round 58-28 win against Blue Springs South.

"We were sluggish in the first game, it wasn't us," Conway said. "We spent some time (Friday) morning working really hard on our energy and moving a little quicker.

"I think that paid off for us."

Hickman outscored Jefferson City 6-5 in the final 1:40 of the first half. It did not go unnoticed.

"The last couple of minutes we struggled defensively because we weren't moving our feet and our help wasn't very good," Conway said. "We talked about that at halftime."

Up 39-8 at the half, Jefferson City was primed for a bit of a letdown in the final two quarters.

"We couldn't have one, it's something we stressed at halftime," Conway said. "And then they started outhustling us to rebounds and loose balls."

But with the big lead, it really didn't matter. Jefferson City led 51-15 after three quarters and the fourth quarter was played with a running clock.

Anderson paced Jefferson City with 18 points, many coming on mid-range jumpers.

"It was nice to see her knock down some shots because she's worked so hard on that part of her game in the past year," Conway said.

Kara Daly, in her normal role as the first player off the bench for the Lady Jays, added 16 points and a team-high eight rebounds. The sophomore was 8-of-8 from the field.

"She accepts her role because she knows she's going to play a lot of minutes for us because she does so many things well," Conway said. "She's an option for us on offense and she's so athletic on defense and getting rebounds."

Micah Linthacum rounded out three Jefferson City players in double figures with 10 points.

"It's nice having options on offense," Conway said.

Emma Chapman led Hickman (4-6) with eight points and eight rebounds.

Today's title game is a rematch of 2017, which Benton won 35-21.

"We didn't play well against them, we didn't defend well, we didn't take care of the basketball," Conway said. "It's an opportunity for us to make up for that a little bit."

Jefferson City is expecting another tough tussle today.

"Benton is Benton, their DNA is defense and execute well on offense," Conway said. "They always have a good inside-outside game that can challenge a defense. We're going to have to work hard."

Hickman will face Helias in the third-place game at 4 p.m.