Helias girls knock off Boonville for district championship

Helias' Emily Harrison (right) reaches for a loose ball during Thursday night's Class 4 District 10 Tournament title game against Boonville at Capital City High School.
Helias' Emily Harrison (right) reaches for a loose ball during Thursday night's Class 4 District 10 Tournament title game against Boonville at Capital City High School.

About two months ago, things started to click for the Helias Lady Crusaders.

Thursday night, they were celebrating with the Class 4 District 10 championship plaque.

"We had a hard schedule, we had some low moments, but to come and win districts is awesome," Helias junior Lindsey Byers said after the third-seeded Lady Crusaders defeated the top-seeded Boonville Lady Pirates 58-49 for the crown at Capital City High School.

"We knew we've been playing our best basketball of the season recently and if we kept doing that we could win it."

It's the first district title for the Lady Crusaders since 2016.

"The first step was to get to the district championship, the second was to win the district championship," Helias coach Alan Lepper said. "Now let's see how far we can go."

Helias (15-12) will play either fifth-ranked Rolla (23-3) or eighth-ranked Sullivan (23-2) in the sectionals Tuesday night at Missouri S&T in Rolla. Game time is 6 p.m. Rolla will face Sullivan for the District 9 title tonight in Union.

Boonville got off to a very good start Thursday night, converting a pair of Helias turnovers into baskets on its way to a 6-0 lead less than a minute into the game.

Helias called timeout to settle down and played better the remainder of the quarter. A pair of Alisha Berhorst free throws in the final minute pulled the Lady Crusaders to within a point at 14-13 heading to the second quarter.

Addison Brownfield of the Lady Pirates hit a layup :25 into the second quarter to give Boonville a 16-13 advantage.

They were stuck on 16 the rest of the half as the Helias 3-2 zone frustrated Boonville, which missed its last 11 shots of the quarter.

"Our girls really locked it down," Lepper said. "I don't know how many people realize how good we are on defense."

Helias came into the game thinking a 3-2 zone would be the best defense against the potent outside shooting of Boonville. It was.

"We had a couple of variations of it, I think that bothered them a little bit," Lepper said. "They have so many good outside shooters, we wanted to contest their shots as much as we could."

Helias didn't get a lot done on its offensive end in the quarter either. A putback by Byers made it 16-15 with 6:05 on the clock before a 3-pointer by Lainy Lamb from the top of the key gave the Lady Crusaders their first lead of the game about a minute later.

Lamb then made another 3 from nearly the same spot with 1:40 remaining in the half to give the Lady Crusaders a 21-16 advantage at intermission.

As good as the defense was in the second quarter, the Helias offense matched that effort in the third quarter. The Lady Crusaders were 9-of-9 from the field, outscoring the Lady Pirates 21-17 to take a 42-33 lead into the fourth quarter.

"It's good ball movement, we were finding the open person a lot and they were making it," Lepper said. "It's hard to concentrate on just one or two players for us."

Helias made just one field goal in the fourth quarter, a layup by Kylie Bernskoetter with five minutes remaining. But the Lady Crusaders didn't need baskets the way they were shooting free throws.

Boonville was forced to foul to try to rally and Helias was 14-of-17 from the line in the final eight minutes.

"Late in the game, we want the ball in the hands of Lainy, Kylie and Lindsey," Lepper said.

The trio were a combined 10-of-12 in the fourth quarter. Berhorst was 2-of-2 and Rylee Kolb was 2-of-3.

"Alisha and Rylee really stepped up as well," Lepper said.

The closest Boonville got in the fourth quarter was six points, the final time coming at 54-48 with :21 remaining.

Brownfield finished with 13 points to lead Boonville (22-4), while Jodie Bass added 12.

Byers finished with 19 points and six rebounds to pace Helias.

"We're very confident we will keep playing the way we are in the sectional," she said.

Bernskoetter added 18 points for the Lady Crusaders. The junior scored a combined 82 points in Helias' three district games.

Helias dropped a 47-31 decision Jan. 7 at Rolla. The Lady Crusaders have not played Sullivan this season.