Mr. Dry Cleaners/Lloyds Cleaners High School Basketball Wrap up from 1/23/14 brought to you by Affordable Towing

There were some big nights offensively on Thursday around the Ozarks.  None bigger perhaps than the night that Halfway Cardinal Dalton Taylor had in Polk County Conference action.  The Cardinals taking on Weaubleau and Taylor had a career night.  He poured in 8 3 pointers and scored a career high 48 pts in an 84-74 conference defeat.
On the girls side a match up between Gainesville and Mansfield saw 2 young ladies put up 39 pts each.  Madison Strong of Gainesville poured in 39 only to be matched by Mansfield's Kailey Morris who was equally up to the challenge scoring 39 pts herself.  Gainesville wins 68-57.
I began the evening in Willard for the completion of the 7th grade girls tourney, my youngest daughter was playing in the 3rd place game, team played hard but fell just short to Buffalo.
I then posted up in Bolivar for Championship night of the Gary Keeling Memorial tournament.  The night started with a Buffalo v Branson match that went down to the wire.  Morgan Henderson led Buffalo to a 52-51 win scoring 20 pts.  Ashley Forrest of Branson led all scorers with 27, with under 20 seconds to play Branson had the ball and an apparent time out called by Lady Pirate head coach Kip Bough was not granted and Branson was unable to get in a good set and shot fell short.  Branson Lady Pirates had not lost a Gary Keeling Invitational tournament game in 4 years.
The third place game matched up 2 Ozark Conference teams on the rise.  Hillcrest vs Camdenton would prove to be a good game for the fans as well.  Game tied at 61 with :54 seconds left, before the Cleeton's score 6 points in 2.5 seconds.  Karolyn Cleeton hits a three and Kelsi Cleeton steals the inbounds pass goes up hits the basket and is fouled on the play, sinks the free throw and now it is 67-61.  Camdenton was at this point 3 fouls short of putting Hillcrest in the Bonus.  Hillcrest forces a 5 second call on an inbounds, Lady Lakers were forced to commit 3 fouls to put Hillcrest on the line, and with 29.8 left Kelsi Cleeton hits 2 free throws giving her a game high 30 pts and sealing the fate of Camdenton.  Hillcrest wins 69-61 and takes 3rd place in the tournament.  Camdenton led 19-15 after 1, 31-27 at the half before Hillcrest takes the lead 51-50 to end the 3rd quarter.  Britney Fisher finishes with 14 to go along with Cleeton's 30 while Camdenton was led by Sophie Shore with 19 and Whitney Snow with 15, Abby Moulder with 13.
Now on to the Championship Game featuring the Bolivar Lady Liberators and the Lady Pirates of Ash Grove.  Both teams ranked in their respective classes.  Ash Grove coming in as the 3rd ranked team in Class 3 in the State and playing perhaps as well as any team in the area.  Bolivar coming off of a 1st round overtime win over rival Buffalo, a game in which they trailed by 17 pts in the 4th quarter and on Diawa Emmert's fade away 3 from the corner which banked in off the top corner of the backboard with 3 seconds left to force overtime.  A game the Liberators would win 76-71, perhaps took some of the legs out from underneath them on Thursday night.  Not sure that would have helped, Ash Grove is just to deep, well coached and with 9 seniors on the roster, perhaps to experienced.
The Lady Pirates jumped out 6-0, and following a Bolivar timeout the Liberators would cut it to 6-2 and that is as close as they would get.  Ash Grove started every quarter with a 6-0 it would be 16-9 with 1:07 left in the 1st and Lakin Simmerman would pick up an and 1 followed by back to back steals and layups to make the 1st quarter score 23-11.  Simmerman would finish with a team high 18 pts, 11 of those in the 1st quarter.  Bolivar would shoot 33% (8-24) from the floor and 37% from the line (3-8) in the first half and find themselves down 37-20 at half.  A 6-0 run to start the 3rd including a Maddi Johnson 3 pushed the lead to 43-20.  Just to much for the Lady Liberators to overcome and the Ash Grove Lady Pirates behind 4 players in double figures, Simmerman 18, Johnson 12, Weinreis 10 and Skelton 10, win the Gary Keeling Invitational 69-50.