In their second year in the Jefferson Bank Holiday Hoops Classic, the Blair Oaks Lady Falcons have already shown improvement.
Blair Oaks finished fifth last year, and can finish no worse than fourth this year after beating St. Joseph Benton 48-43 on Friday at Rackers Fieldhouse. The Lady Falcons will take on Blue Springs South at 7 p.m. today in the semifinals.
"I'm happy for the girls," Blair Oaks coach Darren Heckman said. "We had lost a couple in a row, and had two weeks of practice, so I was excited about watching us play because I thought we had made some improvements."
Blair Oaks led wire-to-wire, but the Lady Cardinals cut into their lead at the end of the third quarter when Kianna Herrera, who scored a game-high 21 points, hit a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer to make it 33-29 with eight minutes to play.
Sophomore Mallorie Fick picked the perfect moment to step up.
Fick scored nine of the first 10 points of Blair Oaks' 15-point fourth quarter, and started things with a game-changing play. Fick drove right at Herrera, who had three fouls, and finished through contact and then completed the and-1 at the foul line. Herrera, a 5-foot-11 forward, scored 16 of her team's 24 second-half points but had to sit for a few minutes as a precaution.
And in that time, the Lady Falcons re-built their lead. Fick hit a pair of 3s, Kaitlyn Kolb hit timely bucket in the paint and Blair Oaks went up by 10 before the Lady Cardinals' comeback bid was stopped short.
"That fourth foul was a bonus, obviously, but we wanted to try to get her going," Heckman said of Fick. "(Jaida Cox) did a really good job guarding her overall and she was having trouble getting open looks. So we wanted to try to get her something to start the quarter, and then she hit a couple of 3s after that. She's got that knack to just score, and as a coach you've got to remember to give her an opportunity once in a while."
Herrera scored 11 fourth-quarter points despite playing with four fouls, but the Lady Falcons took away St. Joseph Benton's secondary options. The Lady Cardinals, a perimeter-focused team, finished 8-of-23 from beyond the arc, and Herrera was the only player to hit multiple 2-point shots.
The Lady Falcons (4-4) were the visiting team on the scoreboard but looked right at home on the court as they got out to an 8-0 lead to start the game. Blair Oaks led 14-9 after the first quarter and had contributions from Natalie Heckman, Bailey Rissmiller, Mallorie Fick and Kathleen Groner.
Cox got open for a pair of corner 3s and Peyton Anderson hit another thanks to ball-reversal and good screens in the first quarter for all nine of St. Joseph Benton's first-quarter points. The Lady Falcons switched up their defensive looks in the second half, using 1-3-1 and 3-2 zones to disrupt outside shooting with success. After starting 2-of-3 from deep, Cox missed her next seven attempts from range, and Anderson, who started 2-of-2, finished 2-of-4. Blair Oaks' defense also forced five turnovers in each of the first three quarters and 19 in total.
It was a good win for the Lady Falcons - St. Joseph Benton went 23-3 last year, losing in sectionals to eventual runner-up Lincoln College Prep, and won a Class 4 title in 2016 - but it also showed Blair Oaks, while improving, still has room for more growth. The team had six turnovers at halftime and finished with 16, thanks to a few careless passes and the Lady Cardinals' full-court pressure to try and get back into the game. The Lady Falcons shot 12-of-19 at the foul line but were 5-of-10 in the fourth quarter.
Blair Oaks will face Blue Springs South, now 8-0 and No. 7 in Class 5 after a 48-35 win Friday against Helias. The Lady Falcons beat Blue Springs South 57-51 in overtime in the fifth-place game last year.
"It's a great opportunity to play a really good team," Heckman said. "We played them last year in this tournament, and they're obviously undefeated, playing really well, got a lot of options, create a real challenge (with the) quick turnaround. But we talked about this, you sign up for this, right? So we look forward to coming and playing tomorrow night and see what happens."