WRIGHT CITY - It wasn’t their most crisp effort, but the cookie that was Friday’s second annual Mayor’s Cup game crumbled into a victory for theLiberty Christian Academy girls basketball team.

The Eagles defeated the host Wildcats 46-32 and were rewarded with a trophy delivered on court by Mayor Dan Rowden in front of a large and spirited crowd that braved through wintery conditions to watch the two Wright City schools, separated by less than a mile, compete.

“I’m glad we won and we played hard, but I don’t think we played extremely well,” LCA Coach Butch Clark said. “We didn’t have a very good night shooting the ball and Wright City had a little bit to do with that. They played some pretty good defense.”

Of course, Clark’s Eagles were pretty strong defensively as well, never allowing Wright City to score more than nine points in any quarter.

LCA was in front 13-9 after the opening period, 26-18 at intermission and carried a 35-24 advantage into the fourth.

The youthful Eagles, who have just one upperclassman on their roster, shot 36 percent from the floor (18-for-50) and did most of their offensive damage in the paint with 5-foot-10 sophomore forward Adison Roden scoring a game-high 15 points and adding eight rebounds.

Fellow sophomore post Andrea Mueller took advantage of multiple second-chance opportunities. She corralled eight rebounds (six offensive) and put up 11 points.

Also in double figures was freshman point guard Allie Meyer, who finished with 10 points, five assists and three steals. Rounding out LCA’s scoring was eighth-grader Sophie Mueller, who canned two 3s for her six points, with Gracie Foran and Kylie Ball adding two points apiece.

First-year Wright City Coach Dan Friedel said the goal for the Wildcats coming into Friday’s matchup was just to compete after they fell 57-33 in the inaugural Mayor’s Cup game last season.

And Wright City did indeed give the Eagles a tougher test in the second go-round.

Though the hosts left a lot of points off the scoreboard because of how they fared at the charity stripe. They made three of their first four free throws before missing 13 of their last 15, including a 1-for-8 showing in the second quarter.

Freshman Jasmin Simpson produced a team-high 10 points for the Wildcats. Senior Kelsey Capstick had eight points, fellow senior Mercedes Wray had seven and junior Abby Raines scored five.

“Wright City wasn’t stellar at the free throw line, but it was the same for us,” Clark said. “I’d feel better about our overall performance if we would have made more than seven of the 26 we took.

“I think we played a little tight times, but this is always a fun game with a great atmosphere and I know our kids really enjoyed it.”

LCA Clinches Conference Crown

Following its Mayor’s Cup triumph, LCA took down a pair of conference foes, beating Crosspoint Christian 70-27 at home Monday and Maryville Christian 39-34 on the road Tuesday.

The win over Maryville cinched the Metro Conference regular season title outright for the Eagles, who are 22-1 overall and 15-0 in league play. Maryville dropped to 17-3, 13-2.

Roden notched a team-best 13 points against Maryville.

“We were up 12 going into the fourth and only won by five, so it was much closer than it needed to be,” Clark said. “There were moments we looked good but we didn’t do it consistently for four quarters, and once again we missed free throws galore. It’s pretty embarrassing when you only make four of 20.”

The Eagles will look to sort out their free throw issues in the final two games of the regular season. They visit Providence Classical Christian Academy Thursday and Wellsville-Middleton Friday.

“We’re winning, but we’ve still got a lot of things to work on,” Clark said. “We’re a long way from being a finished product.”