The St. James High girls’ basketball team surged into the postseason with much momentum by stopping Camdenton 57-45 at home Feb. 26 in its regular-season finale.

It was the Lady Tigers’ seventh consecutive victory to close out the regular season and improved its record to 15-10. The previous week STJ wrapped up an undefeated Four Rivers Conference championship.
This week the Lady Tigers will be attempting to win their fifth consecutive district championship, and sixth in the last seven years. St. James is seeded No. 2 for the Missouri Class 4 District 3 Tournament, to be held March 2-6 at Cuba High School. Host Cuba is the top-seed for District 3 while St. James is seeded No. 2, Sullivan No. 3, St. Clair, No. 4, Owensville No. 5 and Salem No. 6.

In first-round games Monday, St. Clair was to meet Owensville while Sullivan took on Salem. Cuba and St. James received first-round byes.

In semifinal games Wednesday, March 4, Cuba is to meet the St. Clair/Owensville winner at 5:30 p.m. while St. James takes on the Sullivan/Salem winner at 7 p.m.

The district championship game is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, March 6.

Feb. 26 at St. James - STJ 57, Camdenton 45: As she has the past couple of games, junior guard Payge Kemnitzer keyed the STJ attack from long range. Kemnitzer fired in six 3-pointers.

She canned four treys in the first period to help the Lady Tigers blow out to a 17-8 lead heading into the second quarter. St. James outscored the Camdenton Lakers 14-11 over the second period to take a 31-19 edge into halftime.

The two squads literally swapped points the rest of the game. Each team scored 15 points in the third quarter and 11 in the fourth period. Lady Tiger freshman Kaelyn Smith tallied seven points - including going three-for-three from the free throw line - in the final quarter.

“We played a great game to finish the regular season,” said St. James head coach Terry Wells. “Camdenton is so big, strong and athletic. My kids came out ready and really played tough and executed. I’m very proud of this group and what they have achieved so far.”

Kemnitzer finished with 20 points, including six 3-pointers, while Smith finished with 10 points. The Lady Tigers hit nine treys.

Senior Madison Sykora had 12 points and sophomore Chloe Caffey 11 for the Lady Lakers, who finished the regular season 7-18.

St. James won the junior varsity game 38-23. The STJ JV squad finished with a 13-7 record.

The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

Varsity

St. James (15-10): Kemnitzer 7-0-20, Richardson 3-0-7, Campbell 2-2-8, Smith 3-4-10, Costoplos 1-3-5, Deluca 3-1-7, Totals 19-10-57.

Camdenton (7-18): Hines 2-1-6, Schwantes 1-0-2, Franklin 2-0-6, Sykora 3-6-12, Caffey 3-5-11, Knoeck 4-0-8, Totals 15-12-45.

The score by periods:

Camdenton    8 11 15 11-45

St. James     17 14 15 11-57

Junior Varsity

St. James (13-7): Swopes 1-0-2, Apollo 4-0-11, Stubblefield 2-3-7, McCurdy 1-0-2, Drennan 0-2-2, McWhorter 3-2-8, Stack 3-0-6.

Camdenton: Cevasco 2-0-4, Hines 1-2-4, Daniels 2-0-4, Franklin 2-0-4, Plumley 1-0-3, Shrauger 1-2-4.