Both O'Hara Basketball Teams are District Runners-Up

In Missouri Class 4 District 13, the Archbishop O'Hara High School basketball teams took second place, the girls by a 35-30 score to the Notre Dame de Sion Storm and the boys by a 64-50 score to the Hickman Mills Cougars on Friday evening, February 27th. In the girls contest, it came down to free throws. With the score 30-30 with 1:30 remaining in the game, the Celtics missed on four free throws while the Storm cashed in on their first four without a miss and then added 1 out of 2 to finalize the scoring. The Storm did not take the lead in the game until the last 40 seconds of the first quarter when they went up by two and held on until the first quarter ended. But the Celtics regained the lead in the second quater by conseutive three-pointers by Ashley Clark and Alex Smith. O'Hara maintained the advantage all the way into the third quarter when the Storm finally caught up. By the end of that quarter, the Celtics were down by two. In the fourth quarter neither team could get more than a two-point edge until Hailey Houser's free throw knotted the score at 30-30. The only time either team led by five points was at the last successful free throw. Houser led the O'Hara attack with 10 points while Alex Smith and Ashley Clark had 5 each in the low scoring contest. Only Teresa Turner got 10 points for the winners and no one else on their team reached 5 points. In the boys contest, O'Hara played very well into the fourth quarter without the services of their top two scorers of their season and one of their better three-point threats. In fact they did not let the Cougars take the lead until the start of the second period. Sophomore guard JeVon Lyle scored 9 of his 17 total points in the first quarter and the Celtics jumped ahead 13-9. The O'Hara team had a cold second quarter but still were only down by 5 at the half. Four three-point shots by the Cougars in the first half made an uphill road for the Celtics. In the third quarter, the Cougars added three more treys, when at last, DJ Jackson and Jevon Lyle answered with three pointers to bring the margin to four points at 39-35 entering the final quarter. Hickman Mills pulled ahead in the final quarter by as much as 11 points, but the Celtics didn't quit When Jevon Lyle hit a three-point basket with less than two minutes left to the game, the score became 56-50. However the rest of the points were scored by the Cougars, mostly on free throws and an uncontested final layup by Jon Williams just before the buzzer. Besides Lyle, O'Hara's Dominique Fields scored in double figures with 13 points. For the Cougars, Joseph Dennis had three three-point baskets, Earl Peterson had two, and Michael Albiter had two. The O'Hara boys will be graduating two players, Joe Pepple and Trevor Krasowsky, and will have most of their team back for another go next season.