Kylie Bernskoetter got off to a great start Saturday afternoon, scoring 14 points in the first quarter.
It was a great finish as well for the Helias junior. She scored a school-record 37 points for the Lady Crusaders as they topped the Capital City Lady Cavaliers 66-13 in the opening round of the Class 4 District 10 Tournament at Capital City High School.
"Her confidence level is sky-high right now," Helias coach Alan Lepper said. "When you have kids playing like she's playing, that makes everybody around her that much better."
Bernskoetter got Helias on the board just :03 into the game on a pair of free throws after she was fouled after the Lady Crusaders batted the open tip into their offensive end.
Capital City took its only lead of the game about a minute into the contest when Natalie Allison hit a 3-pointer to make it 3-2.
But the Cavaliers didn't score the remainder of the quarter, missing their only two other shots and committing 10 turnovers.
"We didn't do a good job of executing early, but a lot of that had to do with how well they were playing," Capital City coach Ryan Madison said.
Lindsey Byers had nine points in the opening eight minutes for Helias as she and Bernskoetter combined to give the Lady Crusaders a 23-3 lead heading to the second quarter.
The Cavaliers played better in the second quarter defensively, holding the Lady Crusaders to 10 points as Helias took a 33-7 advantage into halftime.
"Defensively in the half-court, we didn't play all that badly," Madison said.
Helias played a man-to-man defense for much of the game.
"We challenged ourselves to play the best man-to-man that we could play," Lepper said. "We wanted to see if we could play an entire game doing that."
That was coming off a short turnaround after Friday night's 66-49 loss at Rock Bridge.
"I talked to the kids and they all said they were fine and ready to go," Lepper said. "These kids are pretty resilient."
Bernskoetter totaled 11 points in the third quarter as the Lady Crusaders extended their advantage to 56-13.
With the big lead, Bernskoetter stayed on the floor with 30 points after three quarters.
"I never would have done that, but she had 30 after three quarters," Lepper said. "She was so close to the record."
Bernskoetter got the record by hitting a 3-pointer with a little more than two minutes left. That broke the record of 35 points held by Margaret Thompson.
Bernskoetter was 12-of-17 from the field - including 6-of-9 on 3-pointers - while making 7-of-9 free throws.
Capital City did not score in the fourth quarter, played with a running clock.
"They defended very well, it was difficult for us to run our stuff," Madison said. "They're a good team that's played a tough schedule."
Capital City, the No. 6 seed in the tournament, ends its first season at 7-18.
"We didn't win a game over the summer, we were really only in one game," Madison said. "Helias beat us worse back then than they did today and the game was half as long.
"Seven wins was good, we had some quality wins and we got better."
Byers added 15 points for the third-seeded Lady Crusaders. Helias (13-12) will take today off before facing second-seeded Camdenton (18-7) in the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. Monday.
Camdenton defeated Helias 59-53 on Jan. 6 at Rackers Fieldhouse as the Lady Lakers outscored the Lady Crusaders 17-10 in the fourth quarter to get the win. Two Helias starters - Lainy Lamb and Rylee Kolb - were just coming back from injuries that night.
"We're an entirely different team now," Lepper said. "But we know they've improved, too."
The other semifinal will pit top-seeded Boonville (21-3) against fifth-seeded School of the Osage (10-14) at 7 p.m. Osage advanced with a 43-41 win Saturday against fourth-seeded Marshall.
The title game is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Thursday.