The St. James Lady Tigers will play for the Four Rivers Conference girls’ basketball championship with three league games this week.

Last week STJ defeated Sullivan 45-27 on the road Thursday, Feb. 12 and knocked off Owensville 46-26 at home Monday, Feb. 9 to improve to 11-10 overall and a perfect 4-0 in FRC action.
This week the Lady Tigers were to complete their league schedule by playing at Hermann Monday, at Union Wednesday and host St. Clair Thursday (junior varsity game starting at 5:30 p.m., varsity to follow).

Entering this week Hermann led the FRC race with a 5-0 league record while St. James is 4-0, Sullivan, St. Clair and Pacific all 2-2, Union and Owensville 1-3 and New Haven 0-5.
St. James is slated to end its regular season with a non-conference clash at home with Camdenton Feb. 26.

Feb. 12 at Sullivan - STJ 45, Sullivan 27: The Lady Tigers avenged a loss to the Lady Eagles earlier in the season on the strength of strong defensive efforts in the second and third quarters.
Sullivan took a 10-8 lead after the first period. However, St. James’ defense limited Sullivan to just three points the rest of the half and the Lady Tigers went into halftime up 20-13.
Again the stingy St. James defense held Sullivan to just three points in the third period and St. James - which hit three 3-pointers in the quarter - took a 31-16 advantage into the final period.
St. James hit five free throws in the fourth quarter to help keep its advantage.
“My kids had their best defensive effort of the season,” said STJ head coach Terry Wells. “We had contributions from everyone on the team, we battled foul trouble and didn’t miss a beat. It was a great win for us.”

Junior guard Payge Kemnitzer scored 14 points for the Lady Tigers, who as a team sank six treys.
Junior Olivia Barton led the Lady Eagles with 10 points.

Sullivan won the junior varsity game 33-22.

The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

Varsity

St. James (11-10, 4-0): Kemnitzer 3-5-14, Richardson 3-0-8, Campbell 2-1-5, Smith 0-1-1, Roark 2-0-5, Costoplos 2-0-4, Deluca 4-0-8, Totals 16-7-45.

Sullivan (13-9, 2-2): Barton 3-2-10, Lambert 1-0-2, Kirk 0-3-3, Schmuke 1-0-2, Miller 0-2-2, Hayes 1-0-2, Head 1-1-3, Merkel 1-0-3, Totals 8-8-27.

The score by periods:

St. James    8 12 11 14-45

Sullivan    10   3   3 11-27

Junior Varsity

St. James: Apollo 1-1-3, Stubblefield 2-2-7, Drennan 1-2-4, Marcee 0-2-2, McWhorter 0-6-6.
Sullivan: Hampton 1-0-2, Rochleau 1-1-3, George 2-0-4, Rulo 4-0-8, Jones 2-1-5, Lattimore 0-1-1, Blanton 1-2-4, Lively 2-0-6.

Feb. 9 at St. James - STJ 46, Owensville 26: It was all St. James, as the Owensville Dutchgirls were limited to just five points over the first half.

St. James took a 10-1 advantage after the first period and were in control the rest of the way. STJ hit three 3-pointers - two by Kemnitzer - the rest of the half to go into halftime up 23-5.
Owensville cut into its deficit by outscoring the Lady Tigers 16-10 in the third quarter. However, the St. James defense clamped down and allowed just five more points in the fourth period, as the Lady Tigers hit seven free throws in the quarter.

“Pretty solid team effort after a great defensive first half,” Wells said. “We kind of fell asleep in the third quarter. However, we got contributions from several players and had a pretty balanced attack.”

Junior guard Adalee Richardson led St. James with 10 points.

The Lady Tigers won the junior varsity contest 26-11.

Varsity

The individual scoring:

St. James: Kemnitzer 3-0-9, Richardson 3-2-10, Campbell 2-4-8, Smith 2-2-7, Roark 1-1-3, Deluca 4-1-9, Totals 15-10-46.

Owensville (4-17, 1-3): Ryerson 4-1-9, Schulte 3-0-8, Koelling 1-0-2, Quilacio 1-0-2, Moss 2-1-5, Totals 11-2-26.

The score by periods:

Owensville    1   4 16   5-26

St. James     10 13 10 13-46

Junior Varsity

St. James: Swopes 2-0-6, Alexander 2-1-5, Stubblefield 3-1-8, Marcee 0-2-2, Stack 2-1-5.

Owensville: Abernathy 1-0-2, Schulte 3-0-9.