The Wright City Wildcats beat Bowling Green for the second time in two games this weekend to win their first district tournament game since 2006 and advance to the district semifinals.
The Wildcats upended the Lady Bobcats 33-28 in the first round of the Class 4, District 7 tournament. With the win, the Wildcats advance to the district semifinal. The Wildcats faced top seeded St. Charles West Tuesday in the district semifinal.
“The team played together and adapted when we needed to adapt,” Wright City Basketball Coach Abby Modaff said. “Playing with such a young team at a district first round was exciting because it was a first for so many of them. Everyone played their roles that they needed to play in order for the game to go in our favor.”
Junior Jasmin Simpson led the Wildcat offensive attack with 19 points. Charleigh Ferrell and Katie Schanuel added four points apiece.
The key to winning the game and Wright City’s focus the last half of the season has been confidently controlling chaos throughout a game, Modaff said.
“There are times in a varsity game that both sides begin to speed up their game and try to cause the other team turnovers,” Modaff said. “But we have started to focus more on how are we going to respond when this happens and being able to remain calm and play our game.”
The Wildcats knew the game would be a battle. Wright City squared off against Bowling Green in the regular season finale and won the game 47-40. Bowling Green started the game in a box and one defense, allocating one defender to cover Simpson and the remaining four players playing a zone defense. They later transitioned to a triangle and two defense, giving other Wildcat players an opportunity to step up and play a different role than they were used to playing.
The Wildcats squared off against St. Charles West in Tuesday’s district semifinal. The Wildcats fell to the district top seed 61-35. After falling behind 20-4 after one quarter, Wright City outscored St. Charles West 14-11 in the second quarter to trim the lead to 13 at halftime. St. Charles West outscored Wright City 30-17 in the second half.
The Wildcats’ focus heading into Tuesday’s game was to believe they deserved to be there, Modaff said Monday.
“I told them the first step in being prepared for the game on Tuesday is to believe in yourself, in your teammates and in your coaches that we have all prepared and worked hard all season to get to this point…Winning on Saturday was a big accomplishment and I believe the girls are seeing that we are moving in the right direction and we deserve to win.”
Modaff stressed the importance of rebounding the ball and ball movement for Tuesday’s game. St. Charles West has two players over 6 feet tall, she noted.
Simpson reached the 1,000 career point milestone in the regular season finale. She scored 32 points in the game.
“That is not an easy task to accomplish especially as a junior,” Modaff said. “I am proud of the hard work she has put in to get to this point as well as how she continues to help make her team better everyday at practice.”
Simpson has scored 25 points or more in 11 games this year, including four games where she eclipsed 30 points.