Celtics Win Grain Valley Tournament

The Odessa girls basketball team learned about an O'Hara player who could shoot from outside when they lost to the O'Hara Celtics 56-35 en route to the Tournament Championship. O'Hara's Alex Smith scored all 15 of her game-leading points from three-point range in the semifinal contest. Following a tight first quarter wherein the two teams were separated by a single point, the O'Hara defense stepped up to frustrate their opponents' offense. That gave the Celtics ample opportunities to get their offense in gear. O'Hara scored 16-9 in the second quarter and 27-6 in the third quarter to coast in with the win. Hailey Houser scored 14 points for O'Hara and Paulina Pengelley followed with 8 points. On January 30th, the Lady Celtics added a 63-30 victory to their record by downing Grain Valley for the Tournament Championship. There was little doubt early in the contest when the Celtics poured in 24 points while keeping the Grain Valley Eagles to 11 points by the time the second quarter got under way. Hailey Houser led the way with 16 points while guard Paulina Pengelley came through with 11 and Ptrice Jackson with 10.

NIXA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT RESULTS

O’HARA RALLIES FROM WAY BACK BUT LOSES IN LAST EIGHT SECONDS AT NIXA TOURNAMENT The O’Hara Celtics nearly pull out a spectacular Championship win at the Nixa Tournament but came up just short 54-52 after a terrible first half. The Kickapoo Chiefs won on a layup by Marcus Crigler. DJ Jackson attempted a three-pointer that hit the rim but failed to drop as time ran out. The game had been tied by a pair of free throws by Aaron Stubblefield, but the real story was the tremendous and unlikely rallying comeback by the Celtics! The halftime score was 31-15 and the fans felt the game was headed for a runaway. The Celtics more than came to life as they dominated play throughout the third quarter scoring 20 while the Chiefs were held to 11. In the fourth quarter the Celtics outpointed the Chiefs by five, but were not quite able to pull off the victory. In the final analysis, the difference in the final score was the free throws wherein the Chiefs had 13 to the Celtics 11. Both teams profited from five three-pointers. Alex Hall had four for the Chiefs while the Celtics got theirs from DJ Jackson (2), JeVon Lyle (2), and Ronnie Miller. O’Hara’s top scorers were TJ White with 15, DJ Jackson with 13, and JeVon Lyle with11. For Kickapoo, Scottie Blakelee had 18 followed by Alex Hall with 17 and Brandon Helsel with 13. As a result of the Tournament games, the records of the two squads were Kickapoo 12-7 and O’Hara 11-7. Nixa won third place in the Tournament downing Hillcrest 69-50.In the semifinals of the Nixa Invitational on Friday night, the O'Hara Celtics' slow-paced offense opened up large holes in the Nixa Eagles’ defense resulting in easy layups as O'Hara beat the Eagles 62-53 . With a 44-41 lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Celtics (11-6) engineered an 8-2 run to build a lead that allowed them to slow things down. Eventually O'Hara, who defeated Nixa 62-55 in overtime of the championship game last year, earned the privilege to face the Kickapoo Chiefs for the Tournament Championship. The Eagles had a lot of turnovers resulting from a 14-2 run by O'Hara that put the Celtics up 22-8 in the second quarter. But the Eagles answered the call with a 13-2 run of its own to pull back within 24-21. They closed the gap to 39-37 with two minutes left in the third quarter but could not get any closer. T.J. White led all scorers with 17 points for the Celtics and Dominique Fields added 14 points. Both had seven rebounds. D.J. Jackson pitched in 12 points. On the previous day, Mount Vernon couldn't keep up with the Celtics after the first quarter and O'Hara moved to the semifinals after posting a 69-53 victory. A 12-4 second quarter boosted the Celtics to a nine point halftime lead at 28-19 and the team continued to control the game. TJ White had a very productive game leading the Celtics with 19 points. Mark Braden and DJ Jackson contributed 30 more points between them. Nine of Braden's points were from three-point range.

Boys Frosh Basketball Win Big

The Trojans from Saint Mary's were overwhelmed by the O'Hara freshman boys basketball team on January 26th. Final score was 72-31! The Celtics were ahead by only six points going into the second quarter, but they really poured it on before halftime jumping the score to 41-20. The Celtics outscored the Trojans in the third quarter 19-11 but the fourth quarter was even better. While scoring a dozen points with a running clock due to the large scoring margin, the Celtics not only did not allow a basket to be made by their opponents, but they did not even provide an opportunity for a free throw. DJ Griffin's 15 points led the Celtic attack but nearly everyone on the squad chipped in with points.

MAX STORMS HAS SECOND BEST TIME IN GROUND HOG RUN

Max Storms, a senior at Archbishop O'Hara High School, ran the 10K Ground Hog Run at Hunt Midwest SubTropolis on January 25th with a time of 33'10" which was topped only by Kory Cool from Manhattan, Kansas, who won with 33:01. Over 850 runners participated in the Run. There were runners from Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, and Georgia in addition to Kansas and Missouri.

Celtics at Blue Valley North Tournament

LADY CELTICS TAKE THIRD AT BVN TOURNAMENT At the Blue Valley North Girls Basketball Tournament, the O'Hara Celtics won third place by defeating Metro Academy 49-42. Paulina Pengelley led the scoring attack with 11 points with Hailey Houser, Alex Smith, and Cameron Randle combining for 25 of O'Hara's points. Taber Spani, who has signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Tennessee, scored 26 points in the losing cause. She and her sister Tanis were the only two players for the Academy to score more than five points. O'Hara's two point lead at the end of the first quarter was increased to a halftime score of 28-22. The Celtics lost in the semifinals to the Tournament's eventual winner Hickman Mills by a score of 48-30. The Cougars were led by Polly Harrington's 20 point performance while the Celtics had no players reach double figures. The best O'Hara could come up with was an 8 point output by Cameron Randle. In the first round of the Tournament, O'Hara put away Liberty 53-44. A full court press held Liberty to only seven points in the first quarter while O'Hara doubled the amount. The fast start benefitted the Celtics as the two teams traded baskets most the rest of the day. Alex Smith and Cameron Randle had 22 points between them to spearhead the offense. Smith hit three three-pointers.

O'Hara 71 Smithville 32

On January 20th, the O'Hara Celtics boys basketball team hosted the Smthville Warriors and litterally ran away with the game! After running off ten unanswered points within the first quarter alone, the Celtics never looked back as they won by a gigantic 71-32 score. Ahead 18-7 as the two teams began the second quarter, the fast-paced O'Hara team scored another twenty points in a row until the margin bulged to 34-7 when Dillon Dec finally connected for two points. The Celtics held a 26-10 second quarter advantage and a 22-11 third quarter margin. With the game well in hand, the contest was played with a running clock for the fourth quarter. TJ White had 19 points for O'Hara, all scored in the first three quarters. He was followed by Mark Braden with 14 and JeVon Lyle with 11. Of Smithville's 32 points, 20 were scored by Dillon Dec, mostly on shots under the basket. The O'Hara JV team also won handily 65-43. Going into the fourth quarter and ahead 44-31, the young Celtics outscored the Warriors 21-12 with Keenan Wilkens-Hemphill and Kenton Echterling scoring half of the Celtics' points of the final quarter.

Three Wrestlers take Seconds

At the Center Yellowjacket Wrestling Tournament, three O'Hara wrestlers won silver medals. Travis Peter came up short in the 125 lb championship match on a 4-1 decision. Zach Taylor at 160 lb and Louis Golden at 189 lb also took the runner-up position, both losing on pins.

LADY CELTICS WIN TWO MORE TIMES The girls varsity squad won their two games with Warrensburg 59-31 and Smith-Cotton 56-41 as visitors and took early leads both times. At Warrensburg, they jumped to a 36-17 halftime bulge and at Sedalia, they had a 30-19 halftime score. In both games, the relentless defensive pressure made a big difference. Hailey Houser split 33 points between the two games and was the leading scorer in both. Only one player from either opponent scored as much as ten points.

Boys Basketball O'Hara 64 Warrensburg 47

Details for this game are not available yet, but at least I did come up with the score . . .

O'HARA BOYS BASKETBALL VS SAINT PIUS

CELTICS WIN OVER SAINT PIUS X Led by Mark Braden’s 21 points and the team’s eleven free throws on twelve attempts in the fourth quarter, the O’Hara Celtics handed the Saint Pius X Warriors a 55-48 defeat on January 13th. The Warriors never took the lead although they did manage to tie the game at 32-32 and 36-36 in the third quarter. In the first quarter, O’Hara had a 12-2 run but the Warriors responded with three-point shots. When O’Hara was ahead 25-14 within the second quarter, the next eighteen points scored by Saint Pius were all on treys, six in succession for a total of 18 points! It was enough to tie up the score, but the Warriors couldn’t maintain that offense. Twice the Celtics held the ball at midcourt for stalls, the first time when the score was 25-20 just before halftime, and the next time was at the start of the fourth quarter with the score 42-38. The second time went for four minutes. Although Saint Pius made two three-pointers in the fourth quarter, their efforts were offset by the clutch free throws by Ronnie Miller, Dominique Fields, Mark Braden, and DJ Jackson. O’Hara’s Ronnie Miller and Saint Pius’ Alex Heffley each made double figures with 16 points apiece. O’HARA JV WIN TOO In the JV game played before the varsity contest, the Celtics won 61-39. O’Hara led 42-33 entering the fourth quarter, but Kenton Echterling caught fire with nine points with the Celtic defense stepping up as well. The Warriors were outscored in the period 19-5.

BOYS BASKETBALL VS ROCKHURST

Rockhurst needed eleven three-point shots to eke out a two point win over the O'Hara Celtics. 69-67. Rockhurst actually blew an early ten point lead early in the game with O'Hara coming back for a halftime lead of 37-35. Six of Rockhurst's treys were shot by Pat Fletcher who had 22 points for the evening. Rockhurst had an obvious height advantage. But O'Hara had quickness. O'Hara's Mark Braden scored 25 points with DJ Jackson tagging on 16 more. O'Hara had possession for the final 13 seconds but couldn't convert on a three-point shot attempt by Ronnie Miller. Prior to the varsity game, the O'Hara JV team won a close contest. The score was 54-51. The score at halftime was 28-28 and O'Hara was behind 37-39 going into the final quarter. The Celtic defense held the Hawklets to three baskets and three free throws from there on. Following a 49-49 tie with 1:37 on the clock, Larkin Garrison and Daniel Hurtt cashed in on five free throws while Rockhurst came up with only two.

WOW! Lady Celtics Hold Pius Scoreless Thru First Half

On January 8th, The O'Hara girls varsity basketball team held the Saint Pius Warriors scoreless for the first half of the game building up a 20-0 first quarter score. A full court press along with tall Tori Hurtt and Hailey Houser who were impressive on defense accounted for much of the success. The final score of the game was 38-12. All but ten of O'Hara's points came from the foursome Tori Hurtt, Alex Smith, Hailey Houser and Patrice Jackson. A few days earlier, O'Hara Lady Celtics won their first game in 2009 in another Conference game with the Clinton Cardinals on January 5th by a score of 58-15. The first nine points were scored by O'Hara, and in the second quarter, the Cardinals were held scoreless although they had two free throw opportunities. Alex Smith fired away with four three-pointers in the contest to lead the O'Hara scoring with a total of 13 points. Jasmyn Franks added 10 points while Hailey Houser and Tori Hurtt each contibuted 8 points. The last part of the game was played with a running clock because the score was so one-sided.