It was a strong first quarter Thursday night for the Hickman Kewpies. The final three quarters belonged to the Jefferson City Lady Jays.
Four Jefferson City players scored at least seven points as the Lady Jays closed the regular season with a 54-33 victory against the Kewpies at Fleming Fieldhouse.
"I think we came out a little flat and they came out ready to play," Jefferson City coach Brad Conway said.
Hickman senior Emma Chapman dominated early, accounting for all of the Kewpies' points as they jumped out to a 9-7 lead. But she was whistled for her second foul and went to the bench midway through the first quarter, which ended with Hickman holding a 14-13 lead on a putback by Kailey Johnson at the buzzer.
"We weren't doing the things we worked on defensively," Conway said.
Jefferson City was just 5-of-13 from the field in the quarter.
"We were missing a lot of easy ones," Conway said.
They turned that around in the second quarter. Jefferson City sandwiched runs of 9-0 and 7-0 around a Hickman free throw to take a 29-15 lead with just under two minutes to play in the half.
"We settled down and starting executing a little bit," Conway said.
Jefferson City led 31-17 at intermission.
The Lady Jays continued their charge in the third quarter, scoring 11 of the first 13 points on their way to a 42-21 advantage with eight minutes to play.
Jefferson City led by as many as 26 points in the fourth quarter, that coming after a 3-pointer by Tori LePage made it 50-24 with a little more than four minutes remaining.
"At times, we played all right, but there were times we weren't executing like we needed to on either end," Conway said.
Chapman finished with 12 points, all in the first half, for Hickman (4-20).
Caitlin Anderson totaled team-high totals of 12 points and eight rebounds for the Lady Jays. Greta Haarmann added nine points, while Micah Linthacum chipped in with eight and Sarah Linthacum scored seven.
Jefferson City (18-6) is the No. 1 seed in next week's Class 5 District 7 Tournament at Holt High School in Wentzville. The Lady Jays open the four-team tourney at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday against Battle.
"The No. 1 thing is we're healthy," Conway said. "We've got a couple of days to catch our breath, to work on a few things. But records don't mean anything anymore, everybody is back to 0-0, we're going to have to bring our best game every night the rest of the way."
Jefferson City, which advanced to the Class 5 quarterfinals last season, bested Battle 61-29 last week at Fleming Fieldhouse.
In Thursday's JV game, Hickman topped Jefferson City 30-26. Maddie Showers paced the Lady Jays with six points.
Jefferson City's JV team finished the season at 12-7.