HARRISBURG - The Chamois Lady Pirates gave everything they could in Tuesday night's Class 1 state sectional game.
The No. 1 Community Lady Trojans just had more to give, defeating Chamois 61-39 in the opening round of the state tournament.
The Lady Pirates, the District 9 champions, end the season at 15-9.
"This loss don't define our season at all," Chamois coach John Leach said. "Community is a very good basketball team, I knew we were up against a giant. We stayed with them for a long time, and that was a tribute to these girls and how hard they worked all year."
Junior guards Katie Keilholz and Makenna Wuelling combined to score 33 points for the Lady Pirates, including a game-high 18 for Keilholz, and held their own against Community's dynamic guard duo of Dalaney Bowers and Natalie Thomas, who scored 16 and 14, respectively.
Chamois' defense kept the game close in the first quarter and the Lady Pirates did a good job of navigating the Lady Trojans' press defense, but half-court turnovers, seven in the first eight minutes, took possessions away from the underdogs. Community held a 15-6 lead at the end of the first period.
"That hurts," Leach said. "That hurts really bad, because it's just one of those things where I knew they were going to pressure us, I wasn't sure exactly how. I had all these scenarios of what they were going to do, and they did one of 'em."
The Lady Trojans did not play zone, knowing a pair of sharpshooters like Wuelling and Keilholz could take advantage, and sent two defenders after whichever one had the ball after a screen until the shot opportunity disappeared.
With the offense struggling, Wuelling took matters into her own hands in the second quarter, scoring Chamois' first seven points. She got into the lane to draw a pair of free throws, spotted up and knocked down a deep 3-pointer from the right wing, then made two more foul shots. Once the defense keyed on Wuelling, Keilholz found a lane for a layup and also hit a pair of free throws, and the two ended the game a combined 14-of-14 at the charity stripe.
But Community also had answers on offense, even as the Lady Pirates cleaned up the turnovers. Crisp ball movement from post entry passes, both from the opposite wing and wraparound passes to finish off dribble-drives, and skip passes created open shots, as the Lady Trojans finished the game 24-of-45 (53 percent) from the field, compared to Chamois' 11-of-38 (29 percent).
"For a long time, they were in the game, as you see," Leach said. "We matched them there, we were only down nine or 11 there a point, and then all of a sudden they went off. When we can't hit the shots, then it's going to be hard."
Community led 31-17 at halftime, and it was Keilholz who came out of halftime firing. Alexis Slusser opened the scoring for the Lady Pirates on a putback, but Keilholz scored the other 10 points of the quarter, including a pair of 3s.
The Lady Trojans were forced to go to their bench because several starters had three or four fouls, but their bench players also made plays, answering Keilholz on the other end to build a 49-29 lead to start the fourth quarter.
"They were all over her," Leach said of Keilholz. "She ended the season with 65, 66 3s for the year, just an amazing number."
Other than a few half-court traps in the first quarter, the Lady Pirates didn't play scared, and used Community's aggressiveness on defense to draw free throws and create foul trouble for the Lady Trojans.
Community kept its 20-point advantage more or less the entire fourth quarter, and killed the last two minutes of clock without a shot aside from two made free throws. The Lady Trojans (27-1) play Green City (27-1) at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Moberly Area Community College, after the Lady Gophers beat Canton 54-50.