The Centralia Invitational Tournament began on Monday with the girls bracket. Van-Far lost 61-15 to reigning district champion Moberly, North Callaway fell 54-40 to Boonville and then Centralia beat Hallsville 65-20 in a rematch from last year's tournament championship game. Van-Far (1-3) and North Callaway (1-2) face each other at 9 p.m. Wednesday in the consolation bracket while Centralia (3-1) moves on to the next round of championship bracket at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday against Salisbury.
Van-Far trailed Moberly 12-7 in the middle of the first quarter until the Lady Indians went on a streak of more than 15 minutes without a field goal, falling behind 55-11 late in the third quarter. Elliott Utterback, who finished with five points and four rebounds, had a jumper in the lane to make it 12-7 and then McKenna Engh-Hoffman, who had eight points and six rebounds, scored on a pass inside from Carmen Wilburn. Asa Fanning led Moberly with 23 points and two 3-pointers followed by nine points each from Grace Billington and Mia Faught.
North Callaway cut Boonville's lead to 40-36 after a Riley Blevins 3-pointer in the fourth quarter but then Boonville scored the next 13 points. The Ladybirds were outrebounded 43-32 but had eight points and eight rebounds from Kymorie Myers along with a team-high 11 points and three blocks from Blevins and nine points and a team-high three 3-pointers from Natalie Shryock. For Boonville, Zoe Davis and Effie Morris each led with 13 points.
"Boonville did a good job of making it difficult on us, similar to how Centralia played earlier on in the year against us," North Callaway head coach Andrew Klein said. "They pressure the ball and don't let you have easy passes and use their physicality to their advantage. At the end of day, we have to move a little bit harder on offense, and that's through coaching too."
Centralia defeated Hallsville 59-28 in the tournament last year and was in full control again this year, making it five consecutive wins against its rival. The Lady Panthers started the game on a 12-2 run and then 20-3 lead after the first quarter, thanks to some of 16 steals, and shot 60 percent on 2-pointers for their best percentage of the season. Braylin Brunkhorst scored 12 of her team-high 14 points in the first quarter, Raegan Anderson finished with 13 points, five rebounds, four steals and three 3-pointers, Madi Johnson had nine points, Morgan Ross had eight points, and Kaelyn Walters had four steals. Clara Quintana led Hallsville with 15 points.
"We've been pushing the ball pretty well in transition," Centralia head coach Megan Brinkmann said. "Braylin is a freight train coming through. Ryenn (Gordon) pushing it ahead and making us run the floor. That's a big part of it. We get to the rim, they stop us, and we've got shooters we can hit."
Look for full stories either in the Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, edition of the Mexico Ledger or the Ledger website on Wednesday.
