Lady Celtics Win Semifinal District Game

On March 1st, the Lady Celtics of Archbishop O'Hara High School won a very close basketball game with the Pembroke Hill Raiders 38-36. _____ The Celtics took a 10-8 first quarter lead, seven points of the O'Hara scoring scored by Alexa Williams. _____ The two-point margin was maintained until the end of the game with both squads scoring 7 in the second, 11 in the third, and 10 in the fourth. _____ The last time these two teams met, the Celtics won in an overtime game. _____ The Raiders did not pull ahead until four minutes into the fourth quarter, and that was by just one point. _____ Meanwhile Amanda Hull made O'Hara's only fourth quarter basket, the remaining eight points coming from free throws by Amanda Hull, Cydnee Reese, and Alexa Williams. _____ In the battle of free throws, the Raiders made only 3 in 8 attempts while the Celtics excelled with missing only 2 in 12 attempts! _____ Alexa Williams led the Celtic scoring with 12 points followed by Amanda Hull with 9 in the low scoring game. _____ _____ On February 28, the Lady Celtics got beyond the first round of the Class 3 District 14 Basketball with a 46-32 victory with the Barstow Knights. _____ The Celtics outpointed the Knights in every quarter starting with an 11-5 first quarter highlighted by two three-pointers by Alexa Williams. _____ By halftime, the score rose to 22-14 led by Amanda Hull's six tallies. _____ Although O'Hara only had one basket by Marli Barlett in period 3, they had enough free throws to outgun the Knights 11-9. ______ All but two of the Celtics' fourth quarter points were made by Cyndee Reese and Alexa Williams, both of whom had a three-pointer. _____ In the final accounting Alexa Williams was top scorer with 15 followed by Amanda Hull's 12 and Cydnee Reese's 11. _____ Pembroke Hill won their game with University Academy 45-35 to reach the semifinals. _____In the other bracket, Saint Pius overwhelmed Renaissance 75-19 and Hogan topped Cristo Rey 63-44. _____ Saint Pius earned the privilege of facing O'Hara for the District Championship by winning their game with Hogan 63-40.

O'HARA 42 PEMBROKE HILL 58 IN BOYS DISTRICT BASKETBALL

After Pembroke Hill had an 11-8 lead within the first quarter of the first round in the class 3 District 14 boys basketball game on February 27, they went on a 16-1 splurge into the second quarter. ______ As a result, they easily won a 58-42 game with the O'Hara Celtics. _____ O'Hara's lone spark came from Kyle Baker's 15 point production while no other team member could score more than five points. ______ In the other first round games, University topped Renaissance 68-59, Barstow edged Saint Pius 56-53, and top seeded Hogan had no problem with Cristo Rey 88-14.

Girls Win but Boys Lose on O'Hara Senior Night

Breaking an 18-18 halftime tie, the Archbishop O'Hara High School girls basketball team came through with a 45-38 win over the Metro Mavericks on February 22. _____ Cydnee Reese led the way with 22 points and was helped by Alexa Williams;13 and Amanda Hull's 9._______ However, the boys' squad squandered a 16 point halftime lead to lose 63-61 on the seniors' final home game of the year. ______ In the girls' contest the scores fluctuated little until the fourth quarter got under way with the Celtics ahead by 29-27. _____ Three-pointers by Alexa Williams and Kellie Bachkora were the key shots to keep O'Hara on top. ______ After the first quarter in the boys' contest the Celtics dominated the scoring until halftime. ______ In the third quarter, had the team held the ball since the Mavericks were not coming out to challenge them, the Celtics could have held up the rally that ensued. ______ Kyle Baker scored over 30 points in the game but was triple-teamed at the end of the game and the other O'Hara team members couldn't make up the slack._____ Marli Bartlett, Ashley Jackson, and Kellie Bachkora played their final girls home game on this night, while Tanner Hull, Maquille Gatlin, and Josh Madden had their final boys' game. ______ ______ The O'Hara girls won a game with Bishop LeBlond on the previous day, winning by 17 points 47-30. _____ In this game the O'Hara trio of Alexa Williams, Cydnee Reese, and Amanda Hull had scores of 15, 13, and 10.

CELTICS COMPLETE WCC BASKETBALL SEASON

A 72-55 loss to the Center Yellowjackets on February 17 finished the West Central Conference basketball competition for the Archbishop O'Hara High School Celtics. _____ Center won the Conference title with a 10-0 record while O'Hara ended up 3-7. _____ Saint Pius completed their season at 5-5, but the other three teams have incomplete records at this time as follows: Warrensburg 6-2, Clinton 2-5, and Smith-Cotton 1-8. _____ In the game with the Yellowjackets, Kyle Baker pumped in 28 points for the Celtics and was backed by Josh Madden's 12 points. _______ O'Hara actually outscored Center in both the second and fourth quarters but fell way behind 12-4 in the first quarter and did not recover.

Results of Catholic Knowledge Bowl at O'Hara

Archbishop O'Hara High School hosted the third Catholic Knowledge Bowl on Friday, February 10 in the school commons. _____ Teams from Our Lady of the Presentation, St. Elizabeth, St. Regis, and Visitation schools in Kansas City, St. James and St. Francis Xavier schools in St. Joseph, and Home school teams from south Kansas City and from north Kansas City competed. _____ Categories for the competition included Creed and Sacraments; Church History and Tradition; Old and New Testament; Morality and Social Teachings; Miracles and Parables of Jesus; Sacred Art and Artifacts; and the Diocese of Kansas City. _____ The six contestants representing each team had already survived a classroom-level competition and an individual on-line round. _____ Rev. Richard Rocha led the fifty-six contestants and more than 200 spectators in prayer at the start of the contest. ______ Archbishop O'Hara High School seniors read questions, scored answer sheets and distributed t-shirts to the sixth, seventh and eighth graders. _____ THE WINNING TEAMS AND THEIR SCORES: Homeschool South 60; St. James 56; Homeschool North 53; St. Francis 52; and Presentation 46.

JAKE FORTIN IS ALL CONFERENCE FIRST TEAM

Jake Fortin was named to the All West Central Conference Wrestling First Team in the 132 weight class on February 7. ______ The Archbishop O'Hara High School wrestling team were fourth in the Conference with a record of 2-3. _____ The following five members of the team were selected for Honorable Mention: Ben Kirse at 285 lb, Peyton Franklin at 145 lb, Maverick Griffin at 138 lb, Ethan Ambrose at 126 lb, and Tanner Warner at 120 lb.

Lady Celtics Do It Again in Overtime

On February 6, the Archbishop O'Hara High Schoool girls basketball team won their second overtime game in a row, beating Pembroke Hill 55-48. _____ The game began as if it were to be a blow-out with the Celtics building up a 16-2 lead before the Raiders obtained their third point of the game just before the quarter ended. _____ The Celtics saw their fourteen point lead whittle down to an 8 point lead at halftime 24-16. _____ The score was shaved further in the third quarter to 6 points at 34-28. _____ As the fourth quarter was winding down, the Celtics led 43-40 but Katie McMurray nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to throw the game into overtime. _____ O'Hara never trailed throughout the four quarters. _____ In the overtime period the Raiders scored first but two free throws by Cydnee Reese tied things up at 45-45. ______ A successful free throw by Erin Harvey provided the Raiders with their last lead in the game, and was answered by a three-point shot by Alexa Williams. ______ The remainder of the Celtics points were on free throws by both Cydnee Reese and Alexa Williams. _____ Pembroke Hill was outscored 12-5 in the overtime period. _____ Cydnee Reese finished with 20 points and was followed by Alexa Williams with 15. _____ ______ On February 7, the Celtics lost to Saint Teresa's by a score of 51-44. _____ Although the team was only two points down after the first quarter and outscored their visitors in both the second and fourth quarters, they fell 12-3 in the decisive third quarter to make the final difference.

Lady Celtics Win Overtime Basketball Game

Things did not look too promising at the halfway mark of the Archbishop O'Hara High School girls basketball game with the Clinton Cardinals on February 3 when the score stood at 21-11. _____ However, the Celtics rallied to win the contest in overtime 35-34. _____ The Celtics were down 28-26 with six seconds on the clock when Cydnee Reese tied up the game to send it into overtime. ______ She came through again in the overtime period with seven seconds remaining to erase a one point advantage for the victory. _____ _____ The varsity boys game ended with a final score of 69-59. _____ Falling way behind in the initial quarter 28-15, the Celtics chipped away to narrow the margin to seven points at the half. ______ They virtually caught up midway through the third quarter, but had to enter the last quarter four points down. _____ Up to the last two minutes of play, they maintained this difference until letting the Cardinals pop in some late baskets. ______ Daniel Hurtt scored 11 of his 18 game points in the first quarter, but Kyle Baker took over to score all but two of his 29 points in the next three quarters. ____ He had six three-pointers.

O'HARA WINS BASKETBALL CONTEST WITH SEDALIA

On the first day of February, the Archbishop O'Hara High School boys basketball team won 71-55 in a game with Smith-Cotton Sedalia. _____ In each of the first three quarters the Celtics increased their lead from a nine point margin in the first, a fifteen point spread at the half, and twenty-two to start the fourth quarter. _____Both Daniel Hurtt with 20 Points and Kyle Baker with 21 points dominated the offensive attack. ______ Nine of the points scored by Kyle Baker and by Luke McCarville were on three point shots._____ For the Tigers, Michael Douglas scored 16 and Donovan Schnicker had 13. _____ Prior to the game, the O'Hara girls' varsity team won 48-41.