O'HARA IS RUNNER-UP IN NIXA INVITATIONAL

Three three-pointers by Ben Fisher in the first quarter vaulted the Nixa Eagles to an early 26-14 lead over O'Hara, and the host team went on to win the Nixa Invitational 2010 championship 72-45. The Eagles went to 20-1 for their season and O'Hara to 16-4. _____ It was the first time O'Hara lost a game by more than three points. _____ The Eagles didn't reach the finals easily having just got by Mount Vernon in a defensive game that ended 46-44; Mount Vernon didn't fare so well against Willard in their game for third place losing 62-49. ____ O'Hara defeated Willard 85-76 in the semifinals to play for the championship. _____ In the O'Hara-Willard game, the Celtics outscored the Tigers in each of the first three quarters, and both teams shot freely in the fourth quarter, each team scoring over 35 points each. _____ Three O'Hara players enjoyed double figures with JeVon Lyle getting 19, Dominique Fields with 17, and Andre Jordan in with 12. _____ In the game for the Invitational Championship, the Eagles shot at 45% and won their first title since 2005. Their top two scorers were Ben Fisher and Zac Hill who totaled 29 points between them. _____ The Celtics were led by Dominique Fields with 12 and JeVon Lyles with 11. _____ The tournament went for three days but only one game could be played on the middle day as the city was blanketed with a snow storm. That put the semifinals and finals on the same day, January 30th. _____ Harrisonville was the winner of the Consolation bracket with a 72-58 win over Park Hill, and seventh place was won in close game by Aurora over Willow Springs 73-71.

FORMER O'HARA COACH WINS 500TH

Mark Nusbaum coached his first basketball win at Archbishop O'Hara High School years ago and his 500th on January 29 at Rockhurst High School when the Hawklets won a 50-32 game with Shawnee Mission East. _____ Nusbaum's span of victories also included successful years coaching at Liberty. _____ He is the sixth basketball coach in Kansas City area history to reach the 500 mark. _____ He has been coaching basketball for 31 years.

O'Hara Girls Win Tournament Championship

Behind the firepower of Breanna Ransburg and Cameron Randle who combined for 24 points, the Archbishop O'Hara High School Lady Celtics won the 2010 Grain Valley Eagles Sonic Show Down tournament on January 29 with a victory over Pleasant Hill 52-36. _____ The Celtics were tied at 14-14 going into the second quarter and managed to pull ahead by four points at the halfway mark. _____ O'Hara outpointed Pleasant Hill in the third quarter 19-6 and the outcome was not close. _____ Adding to the O'Hara scoring were Tori Hurtt, Hailey Houser, Alex Smith, and Ashley Clark with six or more points apiece. These four were named to the ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM. _____ It was Pleasant Hills's second loss in 17 games as they could only score 16 points in the entire second half of the contest. ______ Lincoln Prep won the battle for third place topping Grain Valley 53-46. Oak Grove won the consolation game beating Odessa 34-24.

DISTRICT 13 BASKETBALL TEAMS

The MSHSAA Class 3 District 13 teams this year are Archbishop O'Hara, Pembroke Hill, Central, and Westport. _____ As of January 28, the following State Rankings were: #1 Saint Francis Borgia (Washington); #2 Webster Groves; #3 Hazelwood (Florissant); #4 Kearney; #5 Nixa: #6 O'Hara; #7 Branson; #8 McLuer (Florissant); #9 Sikeston; #10 Raymore-Peculiar.

Nixa Tournament First Round Win for O'Hara

In the Nixa Invitational Tournament on January 28th the O'Hara Celtics beat Willow Springs 73-19 in the first round. _____ In addition to winning by 54 points and although only one player reached double figures with Josh Ruprecht scoring 10 points, nine different O'Hara players put in at least six points each. _____ Using their effective defense, the team limited their opponents to one free throw the entire third quarter and a total of only five second half points. _____ Twelve Celtics scored points as Coach Todd Magwire gave the entire squad playing time. ____ The Harrisonville Wildcats lost to the Willard Tigers 71-59 bringing up a game between the Tigers and the Celtics in the quarterfinals. _____ In the other bracket, the Nixa Eagles beat the Aurora Houn Dawgs 63-29 and the Mount Vernon Mountaineers edged the Park Hill Trojans 50-49 to move up in competition. _____ Only the game between Harrisonville and Willow Springs was played Friday due to the weather conditions: Harrisonville won 66-42. The remainder of the games are scheduled for the following day.

LADY CELTIC FACE PLEASANT HILL FOR SHOW DOWN CHAMPIONSHIP

The O'Hara Celtics won their semifinal game of the 2010 Grain Valley Lady Eagles Sonic Show Down tournament by downing the host team 58-28 on January 27 to meet Pleasant Hill, 54-45 winner over Lincoln Prep, for the tournament Championship on Friday. _____ Three O'Hara players scored a dozen or more points in the game: Tori Hurtt, Alex Smith, and Ashley Clark. Cameron Randle and Hailey Houser combined for 14 more tallies. _____ After reaching a 27-12 halftime score, the Celtics went 28-10 in the third quarter to have the game completed with a running clock.

State 4-A Basketball Ranking: Celtics are 4th

On Sunday, January 24th, the Missouri State High School Regular Season 4-A rankings compiled by sportswriters and sportscasters was announced. _____ O'Hara with a 14-3 record was in 4th place with Borgia 15-0, Sikeston 14-1, and Kearney 13-1 ranked ahead of them. _____ The Celtics' three losses were by a total of just six points. _____ Center, the only other West Central Conference ranked school with an 11-5 record, was 10th; however the Yellowjackets lost a 71-70 game to Warrensburg after the rankings were published. _____ Teams that were between O'Hara and Center (in order) were Soldan 13-4, Notre Dame Cape Girardeau 13-4, Clayton 13-5, MIDC 13-3, and Moberly 10-5.

CELTICS REMAIN UNDEFEATED IN WCC WITH 62-47 GAME

Smith-Cotton lost to O'Hara 62-47 on January 26th and the Celtics remained undefeated in the West Central Conference. _____ Although the Celtics had only a three point lead going into the second quarter at 12-9, they scored 20 points before the half to up the score to 32-19. _____ The margin remained about the same at the end of the next two quarters even though O'Hara at one time was on top by 18 points at 42-24. _____ The Sedalia Tigers made their best showing of the evening when during one span of time they outpointed the home team 13-2. The closest they got was six points 48-42 but the Celtics finished off the quarter with three baskets and eight free throws. _____ Top scorers for the Celtics were D. J. Jackson 14, Daniel Hurtt 11, Ronnie Miller 9, and JeVon Lyle 9.

First Round Win For O'Hara in Grain Valley Showdown

The O'Hara Lady Celtics, seeded #2 in the 2010 Grain Valley Eagles Sonic Showdown, had an easy time winning 65-25 against the Center Yellowjackets on January 25th. _____ Alex Smith and Ashley Clark scored 31 of O'Hara's total while Victoria Hurtt and Hailey Houser combined for 14 more. _____ By halftime the overwhelming score was 42-10. _____ Pleasant Hill, the top seeded team of the tournament, took their game with Warrensburg by a large margin too at 59-23. _____ In round two, O'Hara faces the host team who won 54-36 against Oak Grove while Pleasant Hill vies with Lincoln Prep, a 45-33 winner over Odessa. _____ Round two is scheduled for Wednesday and the finals are on tap for Friday.

WRESTLING SENIORS HONORED

Wrestlers Travis Peter and Louis Golden were honored on Senior Night as O'Hara hosted Adrian on January 25th. _____ O'Hara had a number of open weights as they lost the dual meet 54-18. _____ Nonetheless they took two matches by pins and two by decisions. _____ Travis Peter eventually won his match with a third period pin after taking a 15-5 lead. _____ Freshman Jeremy Ambrose pinned his opponent in the first period. _____ Danijo Adams was a 6-1 winner with a takedown in each period before yielding a point late in the third period. _____ The most exciting decision was between O'Hara's Jake Fortin and Shane Moise. Fortin had a takedown and predicament for four points before Moise managed an escape in the first period. In the wild second period, Moise tied the score at 4-4 with an escape followed by a takedown. Following a reversal for two points by Fortin, Moise got the lead by the end of the second period 7-6 with an escape and takedown. In the final period, Fortin roared back with an escape to tie, a takedown to go up by two, and finally reach a 12-7 decision with a near fall. _____ Except for seniors Travis Peter and Louis Golden and junior Danijo Adams, the O'Hara team consisted of sophomores and freshmen.

Students Who Applied For AKB

The following nine students filled in applications to represent Archbishop O'Hara High School in this year's Academic Knowledge Bowl: MIKE BERNEY, KAYLA HENDERSON, JAKE FORTIN, KIERRA JACKSON, TONY DARLING, MADDIE CHAMPION, JAMES BRADISH, JAMES CAMPO, and CLAIRE BANDERAS. The number allows for a varsity team and a freshman or junior varsity team. Five who registered are freshmen. If three (or more) who did not meet the deadline are accepted as team members, the school can field all three teams. However for the past two years, the other schools in the West Central Conference did not field a junior varsity team nor a freshman team...The other schools in the WCC are Smith-Cotton, Warrensburg, Saint Pius X, Clinton, and Center. The competition on March 13th is in Sedalia.

LADY CELTICS ARE SECOND IN TOURNAMENT

In the championship game of the KA-MO Classic Girls Basketball Tournament, Aquinas was able to hold off a strong O'Hara Celtics team to win 46-36. _____ At the half, O'Hara was down by three points 21-18 and could not not catch up. They were down by four in the final quarter 40-36 but the remainder of the points were scored by Aquinas. ____ DaShawn Harden was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player scoring 10 points, and Melanie Siscos scored 15 points to lead all scorers. _____ For the Celtics, 32 of the O'Hara points were fairly evenly scored by Alex Smith, Hailey Houser, Cameron Randle, and Ashley Clark. _____ Aquinas' record went to 9-1. ____ Third place in the Tournament was Hickman Mills winner over Blue Valley North 37-28, the Consolation Championship went to Liberty who defeated Blue Springs South 62-45, and seventh place was won by Metro Academy 70-24 over Washington.

Overtime Game: Rockhurst 69 O'Hara 68

Unlike the first time Rockhurst and O'Hara played when the Celtics won 61-41, this time the two teams played down the the wire vying for third place in the Culver Classic Tournament; the Hawklets won 69 -68. _____ Jumping to a ten point first-quarter lead at 12-2, Rockhurst appeared to have a runaway game coming their way. However, the Celtics soon pulled within three at 12-9 before ending the quarter down 16-9. _____ Rockhurst added 18 points in the second quarter while O'Hara matched it with 14. _____ The next two quarters belonged to O'Hara wherein they outpointed the opponents 13-5 in the third and 23-20 in the fourth. _____ O'Hara tied the score at 36-36 near the end of the third quarter on a basket by Keenen Wilkins-Hemphill but didn't take the lead until within the fourth quarter going ahead 43-42 on an inside shot by Josh Rupprecht. _____ O'Hara clung on to the lead the rest of the way until Dexter McDonald got an easy layup with just a few seconds left in regulation time to tie up the contest at 59-59. _____ In the overtime JeVon Lyle and Cooper Beckett inched the score up to 61-61. ____ The next six points were scored by Rockhurst, two by Cooper Beckett and four by Dan Tapko. _____ Cutting the six point lead down to three, JeVon Lyle sank a three-pointer, and then followed a bit later adding a layup for a 67-66 Rockhurst one-point advantage. _____ Two free throws by Dexter McDonald boosted the lead to three points, and O'Hara was only able to answer with two inside points by Josh Rupprecht. _____ JeVon Lyle had 25 points in the contest for O'Hara. Dominique Fields had 12 and Josh Rupprecht had 11. ____ For Rockhurst, their two tall players Dan Tapko and Cooper Beckett combined for 38 points and Dexter McDonald contributed 15. _____ The overall winner of the Tournament was the team O'Hara lost to by three points Lee's Summit North who defeated Lee's Summit 51-49. ____ Hickman Mills edged Raytown 54-53 for the Consolation Championship and Blue Springs South was the victor over Lee's Summit Community Christian 62-37 for seventh place.

O'HARA CAGERS IN SEMIFINAL GAMES

On January 20, the Archbishop O'Hara High School girls basketball team moved to the Finals in the 2009 Blue Valley North Basketball Tournament by handing the host team a 57-41 loss while the boys' team in the Culver's Classic came up short 58-61 to Lee's Summit North and go on to play Rockhurst for third place. _____ _____ _____ In the boys game, the Celtics stayed with the Broncos for one quarter by scoring 20 points but had a low scoring second quarter to trail by halftime 30-25. The Broncos increased the lead to 48-39 before the Celtics rallied to outpoint the Broncos 19-13 in the final quarter, but it wasn't enough to catch up. _____ Josh Rupprecht poured in 17 points and JeVon Lyle chipped in 14 for O'Hara. _____ Rockhurst lost by one point to Lee's Summit 74-73 in a close wild game and will try to make up for an earlier loss to the Celtics when the two teams play for the third place trophy. _____ Hickman Mills having won 77-50 over Lee's Summit Community Christain will play Raytown for the Consolation championship; Raytown was the victor over Blue Springs South 64-47. _____ _____ _____ In the girls' game, the Celtics outpointed the Mustangs in every quarter, leading by three after the first quarter, by five after the second quarter, and by nine after three quarters. _____ Alex Smith had 16 and Ashley Clark had 14 for O'Hara in the game. _____ O'Hara plays Aquinas for the Championship on Friday at 7 PM. Aquinas had an easy time dropping Hickman Mills 44-17 to reach the Finals. _____

WrestlersCome Close in Meet With Clinton.

Eero Johnson, Danijo Adams, Jeremy Ambrose, Travis Peter, Ethan Ambrose, Jake Fortin, and Louis Golden won their individual matches in O'Hara's wrestling competition with Clinton, but the team lost by a score of 39-33.

ALL DISTRICT FOOTBALL FOR 2009 SEASON

The votes are now in and the Third Place in State O'Hara Celtics did very well in District Teams. Matt Falke was named to the First Team Defensive Line and Second Team Offensive Guard. Aaron Stubblefield was name to the First Team Wide Receiver and Second Team Defensive Back. Other First Team selections were Quarterback T. J. White , Louie Golden Defensive Back, and Joe Melchoir Defensive Back. Ted Dujakovich made the Second Team Offensive Tackle.

O'Hara Over Liberty By One Point

In the first round of the 2009 Blue Valley North High School KA-MO Classic Girl's Basketball Tournament, the Lady Celtics from Archbishop O'Hara High School won a low-scoring defensive game with Liberty 39-38 on January 19. _____ O'Hara advanced to meet Blue Valley North, winner over Metro Academy 40-25. _____ In O'Hara's victory over Liberty, the closeness of the game was evident from O'Hara leading by one point after the initial quarter, trailing by four at the halfway mark 21-17, and trailing by one point going into the final quarter. _____ 15 of Liberty's points came from three-point shots indicating the effectiveness of Tori Hurtt and Hailey Houser patrolling the backboards on defense to prevent inside shots. _____ Alex Smith led the Celtic attack with 13 points, and in spite of the low scoring game six other O'Hara players adding to the scoring. The winning basket was scored by Cameron Randle with four seconds remaining in the game. _____ Free throws weren't much of a factor with both teams cashing in on five. _____ In the other bracket, Aquinas was a winner over Blue Springs South 55-46 and Hickman Mills won easily over Washington 80-28. _____

O'HARA IN CULVER'S CLASSIC

Jumping off to a great start, the Archbishop O'Hara boys basketball team won a 61-47 game with Blue Springs South on January 18th in the first round of the Culver's Classic. _____ By halftime the score was 28-11. _____ D. J. Jackson led the way with 17 points and sophomore Daniel Hurtt had 14. Ronnie Miller and JeVon Lyle made double figures also. _____ O'Hara earned the right to meet Lee's Summit North on Wednesday. LSN won over Raytown 64-47. _____ In the other bracket, Lee's Summit topped Hickman Mills 73-54 and Rockhurst had an easy time with Lee's Summit Community Christian 69-29. _____ The games were played at the Lee's Summit High School Fieldhouse.

O'Hara 55 Saint Pius X 36

The O'Hara Lady Celtics handed the Saint Pius Warriors their first West Central Conference loss on January 15 when they used four scoring spurts to bring home a 55-36 victory. _____ Saint Pius never led in the game but did reach an 11-11 tie in the first quarter after which the Celtics scored six unanswered points to complete the quarter. _____ In the second quarter, the Celtics had another spurt of six points for a ten point advantage at 26-16. By halftime, the score was 35-21. _____ Saint Pius started the second half with five points to lessen the lead to 35-26 and O'Hara answered with the next seven points to enter the fourth quarter ahead 42-26. _____ The Warriors made one last attempt to get back in the game whittling the margin to eleven points at 44-33, but the Celtics came up with a spurt of eight points. _____ Victoria Hurtt and Hailey Houser dominated under the boards and scored 26 points between them. Alex Smith tagged on a dozen tallies and Cameron Randle ended her day with nine points. _____ O'Hara is undefeated in Conference play with six wins while Saint Pius went to 3-1.

O'Hara 58 Smith-Cotton 39

O'HARA LADY CELTICS WIN IN SEDALIA _____ The Archbishop O'Hara High School Lady Celtics defeated the Smith-Cotton Tigers 58-39 on January 14. _____ Led by Ashley Clark who scored 15 of O'Hara's points, the Celtics held the Tigers to under ten points for each of the first three quarters. _____ O'Hara's two tall forwards Tori Hurtt and Hailey Houser added 15 and 14 points to the Celtic total. _____ Even though the Celtics missed five free throws in a row to end the first quarter, they had a 13-9 advantage thanks to eight unanswered points earlier in the period. _____ They started the second quarter with six more points and by halftime O'Hara was ahead 28-15. _____ Alex Smith and Ashley Clark each shot a three-pointer in O'Hara's 18 point third quarter while the defense held the Tigers basketless; Smith-Cotton's only points in the quarter came from four free throws. _____ The fourth quarter turned out to be a fast-paced shootout. The Tigers outgunned the Celtics 20-12 but the outcome of the game was in little doubt.

O'HARA SELECTING PLAYERS FOR ACADEMIC KNOWLEDGE BOWL

Preparing to improve on their second place varsity finish in the West Central Conference Academic Knowledge Bowl, and to defend their championships on the junior varsity and freshman levels, the 2010 teams are being formed at Archbishop O'Hara High School. _____ The only varsity player that was not a senior last year from the 2009 squad is Mike Berney. Andy Meyer, a member of the 2009 junior varsity team (along with Mike Berney) got varsity experience from the 2009 District Competition in which O'Hara were Runners-Up. _____ Two other junior varsity players who may have a chance to move up to the varsity level are Erin Lynch and Allison Seck. _____ Three sophomores from last year's freshman team that will have an opportunity to compete on a higher level are Kierra Jackson, George Morejon, and Jake Fortin. ____ The freshman team, as is the case every year, will be newly selected members. _____ The 2009 O'Hara varsity came in second to Saint Pius with Smith-Cotton taking third place in the Conference. _____ The O'Hara junior varsity teams won First Place for three consecutive years while the O'Hara freshman teams have taken top honors eight years in a row. Two of the JV championships and four of the freshman championships were by default when the other schools failed to field teams. _____ This year's competition is scheduled for March 13 in Sedalia at Smith-Cotton. ____ Brother Richard Geimer, room 414, has been the moderator of the O'Hara teams since 1999. The 2005 and 2008 varsity teams won First Place plaques.

Easy Wins for Celtics in Basketball

On January 12, the O'Hara boys basketball team traveled to Saint Pius X winning 62-43. A very slow start had the Celtics on top by an uncharacteristicly low score of 7-4 by the end of the first quarter. The Saint Pius Warriors actually inched ahead 14-11 partway into the second quarter. But then the Celtics scored nine unanswered points with Dominique Fields supplying five of them and O'Hara was not seriously challenged from then on. After the score reached 29-20 midway through the third quarter, the Celtics poured in eleven consecutive points involving five different players for a lead of twenty points. The Warriors were unable to cope with the Celtic full court pressure. Both teams matched scores of 21 apiece for the final quarter. Eleven O'Hara players spread out the scoring with Dominique Fields leading the way with 11 points. _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ On January 11, the O'Hara Celtics girls basketball team hosted the Warrensburg Tigers and won 51-17. The Lady Celtics defense held the Tigers to just two points in each of the first, third, and fourth quarters. Cameron Randle and Alex Smith with double figures accounted for 24 of the O'Hara points. Warrensburg's best showing was in the second quarter when they got three three-point shots and two free throws for 11 points, but that was matched by 20 points by the Celtics mostly from Cameron Randle and Hailey Houser.

O'HARA HOSTS WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

In spite of the winter storm, Archbishop O'Hara High School hosted a wrestling tournament on January 9. Four schools sent teams to compete: Raytown South, Christ Prep, Saint Mary's, and Rockhurst. ______ O'Hara's Jake Fortin, wrestling at 125 lbs, won all four of his matches to take first place. _____ Three other O'Hara wrestlers lost only one match each and ended up in second places. They were Jeremy Ambrose at 130 lbs, Louie Golden at 189 lbs, and Danny Adams at 103 lbs.

O'Hara Wins By Twenty: O'Hara 61 Rockhurst 41

The Rockhurst Hawklets scored six three-pointers against the O'Hara Celtics for 18 of their 41 points on January 8, but it wasn't enough as the home team lost 61-41. _____ For the first quarter, the game was fairly close with O'Hara up by four points. ____ A splurge of scoring in the second period pushed the game out of reach for a halftime score of 33-22 with O'Hara on top. _____ T. J. White and JeVon Lyle combined for 29 Celtic points as the deep O'Hara bench took care of the rest. _____ Rockhurst connected on only three free throws. _____ Going into the game, both teams had won over a tough common opponent Rock Bridge. Rockhurst won their game by four points but O'Hara needed a double overtime to win theirs by one point.

O'HARA BASKETBALL TEAM RANKED #2

On January 7, the sports staff of the KC Star announced the rankings of area boys basketball teams of Missouri Classes 4 and 5 and of Kansas 5A and 6A Classes. Included was O'Hara who in past years was included in the small schools category. _____ The O'Hara Celtics with a 10-1 record was ranked #2 behind Miege with a 4-0 record. Miege edged O'Hara by two points in the Hy-Vee Shootout when Jevon Lyle's three-point shot at the final buzzer missed. _____ On January 8, Miege was listed nationally #41 in the ESPN Rise Fab 50 rankings. ____ Kearney with a 10-0 record was third in the area rankings and two teams that had identical 10-1 records as O'Hara were ranked fifth (Rockhurst) and seventh (Raymore-Peculiar). _____ Undefeated teams with 5-0 records were Leavenworth (ranked fourth) and Olathe South (ranked sixth). _____ The other teams rounding out the top ten were #8 Raytown South 9-3, #9 Liberty 9-2, and #10 Blue Valley North 4-1.

Lady Celtics Begin New Year With 62-30 Win

On January 5, the O'Hara Lady Celtics hosted the Saint James Thunder and took a 62-30 decision. _____ Hailey Houser poured in 22 points, eight of which were O'Hara's first points of the third quarter after the Celtics achieved a 34-18 halftime score. _____ At 21-12, the Celtics jumped ahead in the first quarter erasing a 7-8 Thunder lead by putting in seven unanswered points. _____ Saint James was held to six points in the second quarter, eight points in the third quarter, and only four in the final quarter. _____ Cameron Randle had 12 points and Alex Smith had 10 points.

ALL-METRO VOLLEYBALL INVOLVES THREE O'HARA JUNIORS

From the Archbishop O'Hara High School Class 3 State Championship Team, three players were considered for the 2009 ALL-METRO TEAM. ______ All three are juniors in the announcement made on January 3, 2010. ______ Chosen to the FIRST TEAM was Victoria Hurtt who led the team in blocks, kills, and kill-efficiency statistics. She is a repeat All-Metro First Team player having been selected her sophomore year. This year she received the recognition for the top rated player for the State All-Region Team. _____ O'Hara's setter, Lindsey Hanaway, was named to the All-Metro SECOND TEAM, and middle-hitter Michala Boehm was an HONORABLE MENTION. _____ The O'Hara Celtics will have all three players back for next season.