After an upset win over Fatima in the opening round of the district tournament, the Southern Boone County girls basketball team was looking for a repeat against Blair Oaks in the district semifinals on Thursday.

Despite giving the Falcons a challenge and keeping it close up until the final seconds, the Eagles team ended in a 49-48 loss to the No. 2 seed in the tournament.

Blair Oaks hit a jumper in the final 15 seconds to take the lead by one point, and SoBoCo’s final offensive drive with nine seconds left fell short to advance the Falcons to the district championship match.

Southern Boone allowed an early 9-1 Blair Oaks lead in the first quarter, but a strong defensive stretch pulled them back into the game. Down by eight with just over four minutes left in the first, the Eagles forced back-to-back turnovers. Senior Reganne Scheer scored on the second to cut into the lead and fire up an Eagles run. Trinity Schupp made two free throws to cut into the lead further and the defense responded to the offensive momentum by forcing two more turnovers. Dani Post hit a 3-pointer to take the 10-9 lead to end the first and give Southern Boone an advantage heading into the second quarter.

“Most of these girls have never been in this position, and I think we were a little shell-shocked to start out. But defensively, we started to put pressure on, and we were getting excited and feeling really confident,” head coach Damon Wren said.

~ Read more in today’s Journal ~

By Briley Eilers