For the second time in school history and for the second consecutive year the Marissa-Coulterville Lady Meteors will be playing for their first regional title after holding down Steeleville 70-36 Tuesday night in the Marissa 1A semifinals.
“Our goal all year was to get back to play for a regional title,” said Marissa-Coulterville coach Dan Lehman. “Hopefully we can get a better outcome this time around.”
Marissa-Coulterville’s pressure defense forced Steeleville into 32 turnovers and helped the Lady Meteors speed up the tempo of the game.
“We wanted to force Steeleville to play at our tempo,” added Lehman. “We talked all week about playing the way we wanted to play and force other teams to play at a quicker pace. For a first year program, Steeleville played well, but we were able to turn them over quite a bit and that really got us going.”
The Lady Meteors opened the game with a 10-2 scoring run as seniors Dena Malkin and Kara Wine each scored five points as Marissa-Coulterville built up a 10-point lead in the opening quarter.
Steeleville battled back behind Megan Lalis’ four points to cut the deficit to eight points, 16-8 at the end of the first quarter.
The Marissa-Coulterville offense found its rhythm in the second quarter scoring on 11-of-17 possessions and ending the frame with a 20-3 run for a 37-14 lead at the break.
Wine tossed in eight points in the quarter, while sophomore Kendra Goss had six for the Lady Meteors.
Steeleville couldn’t get on track in the second period, going just 1-of-5 from the field with seven turnovers. Jill Winkelman led the attack with four points.
Freshman Alex Gale provided the offensive spark for the Lady Warriors in the third as she knocked three three-pointers and Steeleville overcame 10 turnovers in the quarter to outscore Marissa-Coulterville 12-10. However, Steeleville still found itself down by 21 points.
The Lady Warriors were also in major foul trouble with starters Natalie Ruebke and Winkelman each having four fouls.
Steeleville would cut the deficit down to 20 points early in the fourth, but couldn’t come any closer as all of the fouls called in the game took its toll. The Lady Warriors came just one foul away from having their entire starting lineup foul out as the Lady Meteors outscored them 23-10 in the fourth for the 34-point win.
Wine finished with a game high 21 points to lead Marissa-Coulterville, while Goss had 16 and Malkin added 12.
“Kara is just a good player and she doesn’t miss many open looks,” said Lehman. “But what makes her special is that she is so unselfish and she makes the players around her better.”
Gale finished with 16 points to lead Steeleville, while Lalis had seven and Winkelman tossed in six.
With the loss, Steeleville wrapped up its first season with a record of 11-12.
Marissa-Coulterville improved to 23-4 on the season with the win and advanced to take on Okawville Thursday in the regional finals starting at 7:30.
Okawville topped Trico 52-31 in the other semifinal Tuesday night.
Okawville 52
Trico 31
Okawville outscored Trico 23-8 in the first half and rolled to a 52-31 victory in the Marissa 1A Regional Tuesday night.
Okawville came up with 23 steals in the game and held the Trico offense in check for most of the game.
The Lady Pioneers trailed 14-5 at the end of the first quarter, 23-8 at halftime and 45-19 after three quarters of play.
Megan Wienstroer led Okawville with 19 points.
The Trico offense was paced by Chelsea Jarrett with nine and Beth Daniels and Stephanie Cochran with six points each.