St. Dominic girls lose in state semifinals

COLUMBIA, Mo. — Unfortunately for the St. Dominic girls basketball team, all good things eventually come to an end.

The Crusaders brought a 23-game winning streak into their Class 4 semifinal against Cape Notre Dame on Friday at Mizzou Arena and for the majority of the game, it looked like the streak would remain intact. But a strong fourth quarter by Notre Dame stopped St. Dominic in its tracks as the Bulldogs pulled out a 62-55 win.

“I don’t think anybody gave us a chance from what I heard this week from the media,” St. Dominic coach Suzie Mennemeier said. “They are a heck of a team with a lot of firepower … we just kind of ran out of gas.”

Allyson Bradshaw scored a game-high 26 and Jane Morrill scored 17 to lead Notre Dame (26-4). The Bulldogs will play Webb City today for the state championship.

The game shifted with a 30-second span midway through the fourth. Morrill broke a 44-44 tie with a basket to give Notre Dame its first lead since early in the first quarter. Then, after a turnover, Bradshaw made a 3-pointer to give Notre Dame a 49-44 lead.

“It was huge because all of a sudden we were playing to win the game,” Notre Dame coach Renee Peters said.

With momentum firmly in its control, Notre Dame sealed the game from the free throw line. The Bulldogs went 13 for 17 from the line down the stretch.

“That was the backbreaker,” Mennemeier said. “I wasn’t too concerned being down two because the game was close. But then they made that 3-pointer and we never recovered from that.”

Jennifer Rocha scored 23 to lead St. Dominic (25-4) and Kelly Schnieders added 14. St. Dominic will play O’Hara today in the third-place game.

“Player for player, I didn’t tell the girls this until after, but they are a better team than us,” Mennemeier said. “And we still almost beat them.”

St. Dominic loses four seniors from this team. Rocha, a junior, said the experience will help the team moving forward.

“We obviously didn’t want to lose; we wanted to go all the way and prove everybody wrong,” Rocha said. “It’s definitely a motivator. We’re a young team and we want to get back here again.”

In the other semifinal, Webb City beat O’Hara 55-42.

Kaitlin Jaeger led Webb City (29-1) with 17 points, Kyndal Clark scored 16 and Sharenda Campbell added 10.

Hailey Houser led O’Hara (23-7) with 12 points and Cameron Randle and Alexandria Smith each scored 11.

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