Chamois girls win tourney title against host Calvary Lutheran

Calvary Lutheran's Katy Allen catches a pass over Chamois' MaKenna Wuelling during Saturday's title game in the Calvary Lutheran Tournament.
Calvary Lutheran's Katy Allen catches a pass over Chamois' MaKenna Wuelling during Saturday's title game in the Calvary Lutheran Tournament.

Chamois has narrowly missed getting to the championship game of the Calvary Lutheran Tournament the past two years.

On Saturday, the Lady Pirates made it look fairly easy with a 51-31 victory against Christian Fellowship in the semifinals and closed it out with a 38-26 win against Calvary Lutheran in the championship game.

"I've always thought we could win this thing, but we were just so close sometimes," Chamois coach John Leach said. "This year we put everything together and they played well and stayed composed. Wow, what a week. I'm so proud of them."

The victory was the fourth in three days for the Lady Pirates. It also capped a stretch of five games in six days for Chamois.

"It's been a long week," Leach said. "It took a toll on us physically, mentally. They are a good team. I tip my hat to them because they do play well. It was a really good week for us."

Chamois never trailed in the championship game.

Katie Keilholz, who scored a game-high 14 points for Chamois, drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key to get it started.

Emma Homfeldt tied it at 3 with a three-point play off an offensive rebound, but a Haley Skaggs layup with 5:10 on the clock gave the Lady Pirates the lead for good.

Chamois led 11-5 after the first quarter, but both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net in the second quarter.

Layups from Abbie Klatt and Haley Braun were the only field goals of the quarter.

Keilholz made a free throw for the Lady Pirates, who led 12-9 at halftime.

The third quarter was the difference in the game as the Lady Lions went cold from the field.

Chamois went on an 11-0 run that lasted into the fourth quarter.

MaKenna Wuelling lofted a pass from half court to Skaggs for a layup to make it 21-9 with 3:58 left in the third quarter.

Chamois held Calvary Lutheran scoreless for about 11 minutes.

"We really pride ourselves on our defense because we really work on that a lot," Leach said. "We've got to stop people in order to have a chance to win."

But the Lady Lions still had fight in them.

Homfeldt knocked down a 3-pointer with 6:55 left to end the scoring spell.

"Just getting that one bucket to fall in kind of got a little confidence," Calvary Lutheran coach Bethany Marble said.

Allison Proctor cut it to 30-24 with a bucket with 1:36 left and the deficit was five with 1:15 left following a pair of free throws from Klatt.

"I'm proud of the girls for keeping on the fight and working hard the whole time," Marble said. "I always push the girls to know no matter what the score is you all got to keep pushing, you've got to keep playing."

The comeback stalled as Chamois made 3-of-4 free throws and added two buckets off turnovers to close the game on a 7-0 run.

Skaggs, who represented Chamois on the all-tournament team, had two of those free throws to finish with 11 points to go with a game-high 10 rebounds for a double-double. She and Wuelling each scored 14 points in the semifinal game.

The Lady Lions defeated Metro-East Lutheran 53-45 in the semifinals.

Homfeldt had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. She finished with eight points before fouling out in the championship contest.

Klatt, who earned an all-tournament team nod, led Calvary Lutheran with 21 points in the semifinals and scored eight points against Chamois.

Calvary Lutheran (5-5) will host Bunceton at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday. Chamois (11-3) will play Thursday at St. Elizabeth.

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