The Stanberry Lady Bulldogs, with a 17-1 season record, have already clinched the Grand River Conference’s Western Division championship, giving the Lady Bulldogs home court, and a likely visit from Trenton, in a title game rematch on Friday, February 2nd. While the anticipation of an all-Bulldog battle of state-ranked teams continues to build, Stanberry continues on “cruise control” through the last full week of January, winning a pair of games at the King City Tournament by a combined score of 167-21.
Stanberry’s latest victim was DeKalb, with the Lady Bulldogs rolling the Lady Tigers 76-12 in Thursday night’s semifinal round. Lily Osborn led Stanberry with 16 points while Madi Sager added 13, as 13 SHS players scored in the decisive rout. The Lady Bulldogs, now up to #7 in the state in the latest Class 2 girls poll, will play the GRC West rival North Andrew Lady Cardinals in Saturday afternoon’s (12:30) championship game, after North Andrew slipped by the host King City Lady Wildkats on Thursday night, 39-35. Kinzie Shank had 13 points and Brooke McDaniel along with Jentry Copple scoring 10 each for North Andrew. Shae Gilbert led KCHS with 16.
The North Andrew boys, the newly-minted #1 ranked team in the state in Class 1, got a stern challenge from King City on Thursday, but advanced to Saturday’s (2 PM) final, with a 66-56 win. Aidan DeLong had 18 points while Ryan Hughes and Jacob Powelson each scoring 10 for the unbeaten Cardinals, while Collin Breckenridge had 17 points and Wyatt Vanneman 10 for the ‘Kats. North Andrew’s championship opponent will be South Holt, a 56-52 semifinal winner over Stanberry. Reagan Morris led South Holt with 22 points with Brad Hailey scoring 28 in the loss for the Bulldogs.
The two consolation finals and girls third place game will be played on Friday night at King City High School, with the Maysville girls battling Albany at 5 PM for the consolation hardware, followed by the Maysville boys opposite Stewartsville. DeKalb and King City meet for girls third place at 8:00.
On Saturday, the boys third place game between King City and Stanberry starts the day at 11 AM. The girls title game (Stanberry vs. North Andrew) follows at 12:30, with the boys championship (North Andrew vs. South Holt) at 2 o’clock.
