The Mercer girls basketball team won the Class 1 state championship on Saturday afternoon with a 43-34 victory over Walnut Grove. The game from Mizzou Arena in Columbia was broadcast on KTTN FM 92.3.
Mercer led by three points (37-34) with 35 seconds left in the contest, and then scored the final six points on free throws. Two of them were by Bailey Owens, while Nicole Kost hit the final four free throws. Kost led Mercer with 14 points. Lindsay Wyatt added 11. Both Kost and Wyatt are recruits for the Lady Pirate basketball program at North Central Missouri College. A three-pointer by Kost, midway through the third quarter, gave Mercer the lead for good, helping to ignite a Lady Cardinal rally. Tom Johnson had the play-by-play call from Mizzou Arena:
Bailey Owens, the daughter of Mercer Head Coach Dan Owens, played through a left knee injury suffered in Thursday’s semifinal win over South Iron. Owens had her injury heavily bandaged, managing eight points in the championship game victory, including a huge three-point shot that continued the third quarter surge:
By the time the third quarter was over, Mercer’s lead was up to 34-27. The fourth quarter saw the Lady Tigers slice into Mercer’s lead, as the Lady Cardinals went scoreless over the first 4 1/2 minutes of the final quarter, before using stout defense and ace free-throw shooting to close out the game. Walnut Grove’s Bayley Harmann was the game’s leading scorer with 23 points.
Mercer finishes the season with a 31-1 record and the school’s first-ever girls state basketball championship.
Walnut Grove finishes 28-5.
Mercer trailed 16-9 after the first quarter but outscored Walnut Grove in each of the final three period, including holding WGHS to just four second-quarter points, in a defensive effort praised by Coach Dan Owens:
The Walnut Grove boys salvaged a doubleheader split for the Tigers in the Class 1 title games, rallying from a six-point deficit with three minutes remaining to take down Advance, 65-62.
In Class 2, the Skyline girls hammered Adrian 69-42 while the Oran boys won state with a 70-63 triumph over the Crane Pirates.
The Strafford Lady Indians walloped Whitfield to win Class 3, 83-37, joined by the Transportation and Law boys, who beat Whitfield in an-all St Louis final, 78-68.
Mercer advanced to Saturday’s title game with a 63-43 semifinal win over South Iron, using a steady level of strong play to pull away from the upset-minded Lady Panthers in the second half.
Kost had 15 points with Emily Sample adding 15 in the semifinal victory, Mercer’s 30th of the season, with Owens adding 12, and Wyatt 11. South Iron was paced by Michaela Ayers with 18 points.
