The St. James Lady Tiger basketball squad returned to Four Rivers Conference play Thursday, Feb. 5 by traveling to Pacific and blasting the Lady Indians 45-26.

Also last week St. James split two non-conference games, falling at home to state-ranked Bunker 47-35 Wednesday, Feb. 4 and whipping Licking 50-31 at home Monday, Feb. 2.

Last week’s action left the Lady Tigers 9-10 overall and 2-0 in FRC action.
This week STJ is scheduled to play a league game at Sullivan Thursday, Feb. 12. The junior varsity game is to begin at 5:30 p.m. with the varsity contest to follow.

Feb. 5 at Pacific - STJ 45, Pacific 26: The Lady Tigers came out firing in three-pointers during the first period to set the tone. St. James got four treys from three different players to outscore Pacific 16-7 in the first quarter and led the rest of the way. However, Pacific trimmed its deficit to 24-17 by halftime.

In the second half the Lady Tiger defense limited the Lady Indians to just nine total points - three in the third period. St. James led 34-20 heading into the fourth quarter.

“We played a good, tough game,” said St. James head coach Terry Wells. “We played an awesome first half and then the last couple minutes we had some mental breakdowns and Pacific took all the momentum into halftime. My kids responded well after halftime, as we felt the first few minutes of the third quarter would be the deciding factor. We won the quarter and were able to make good decisions in the fourth to grab an important conference win.”

Junior guard Payge Kemnitzer led St. James with 13 points, including four 3-pointers, while junior guard Adalee Richardson added 12 points. STJ hit six 3-pointers total.

Junior Ava Kientzy led Pacific with 12 points.

St. James won the junior varsity game 45-13.

The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

Varsity
St. James (9-10, 2-0): Kemnitzer 4-1-13, Richardson 4-3-12, Campbell 2-3-8, Smith 1-2-4, Roark 1-0-2, Costoplos 0-1-1, Deluca 1-3-5, Totals 13-13-45.

Pacific (8-10, 2-1): Kientzy 4-0-12, Makenzi Howard 2-0-4, Miller 4-2-10, Totals 10-2-26.
The score by periods:

St. James 16   8 10 11-45

Pacific       7 10    3  6-26

Junior Varsity

St. James: Apollo 1-0-2, Alexander 5-2-13, Stubblefield 3-1-9, Drennan 4-0-10, Stack 5-0-11.

Pacific: Kelm 2-1-5, Chasteen 1-0-2, Krug 1-2-4, Goebel 1-0-2.

Feb. 4 at St. James - Bunker 47, STJ 35: The Bunker Lady Eagles, ranked No. 5 in the latest Missouri Class 1 state poll, improved to 17-2.

The game was a tight one much of the way, with Bunker holding a lead the majority of the time. St. James trailed 11-9 after one period. And the Lady Eagles’ sophomore Kara Barton fired in her second and third 3-pointer of the half in the second quarter, lifting Bunker to a 23-17 halftime lead. Bunker opened its cushion by holding STJ to eight 3rd-quarter points to go into the final period up 38-25, and led the rest of the way.

“My kids played very hard,” Wells said. “We played as well defensively as we have all season. The effort and the toughness was there and we were very physical. We just didn’t make the shots. If we play like that moving forward, we have good times ahead.”

Kemnitzer paced St. James with 11 points.

Kara Barton led Bunker with 19 points while senior Kinsey Barton added 14.

The individual scoring:

St. James: Kemnitzer 3-2-11, Richardson 4-0-9, Campbell 1-0-2, Smith 0-2-2, Roark 0-2-2, Costoplos 1-0-2, Drennan 1-2-5, Deluca 0-2-2, Totals 10-10-35.

Bunker (17-2): Damouth 1-0-2, Kinsey Barton 6-2-14, Kara Barton 7-0-19, H. Turnbough 2-0-5, Kiera Turnbough 3-1-7, Totals 19-3-47.

The score by periods:

Bunker      11 12 15   9-47

St. James     9   8   8 10-35

Feb. 2 at St. James - STJ 50, Licking 31: For the second time in two meetings the Lady Tiger defense snuffed out the Licking Lady Wildcat attack. With Kemnitzer leading the way with seven points, five different players scored as St. James outscored Licking 18-4 in the first period. Neither team did a lot offensively the rest of the half, as STJ took a 26-11 advantage into intermission.
St. James would hold a comfortable lead throughout the second half. And a pair of free throws by sophomore guard Kaelyn Smith to end the third-period scoring gave the home team a 20-point edge going into the final quarter, 38-18.

STJ led by at least 18 points the rest of the way.

Kemnitzer led the St. James charge with 16 points.

St. James won the junior varsity game 30-16.

The individual scoring:

Varsity
St. James: Kemnitzer 6-1-16, Richardson 3-2-8, Campbell 2-0-5, Smith 0-7-7, Roark 1-0-2, Costoplos 0-4-4, Deluca 2-3-7, Totals 14-17-49.

Licking (10-8): Stone 2-0-4, Huff 1-2-4, Davis 3-0-6, Rinne 2-2-6, Medlock 1-3-5, Kinder 1-0-2, Reed 0-1-1, Floyd 1-1-3, Totals 11-9-31.

The score by periods:

Licking      4    7   7 13-31

St. James 18    8 12 11-49