Centralia girls defeat rival Hallsville 65-20 in title game rematch

History repeated itself on Monday night.

Centralia Invitational Tournament Day 1 Photo Gallery

The Centralia girls defeated their rival Hallsville by a wide margin of 59-28 in last season’s Centralia Invitational championship game and won the rematch 65-20 in the first round of this year’s tournament. The Lady Panthers remained in control throughout thanks to a season-high 60 percent shooting night on 2-pointers and nine players scoring, advancing themselves to today’s 7:30 p.m. meeting with Salisbury in the next round.

Head coach Megan Brinkmann said Centralia (3-1) was literally off and running early when it started the game with a 12-2 run and then led 20-3 after the first quarter and then 35-13 at halftime. Braylin Brunkhorst led with 14 points and scored 12 of those points in the first quarter.

“We've been pushing the ball pretty well in transition," Brinkmann said. "Braylin is a freight train coming through. Ryenn (Gordon) pushing it ahead and making us run the floor. That's a big part of it. We get to the rim, they stop us, and we've got shooters we can hit."

Brinkmann said it is a matter of “finding the right one at the right time” when it comes to the number of contributors Centralia has this season. Kaelyn Walters, who finished with four steals, became the ninth Lady Panther to score in the game in the middle of the fourth quarter. 

Heading into the late stretches of the game, Brinkmann said the Lady Panthers were unselfish and consistently found the open shot. Besides Walters, Madi Johnson scoring nine points, Harper Forshee having five points, and Katie Carrico adding four rebounds and three steals made the team that much deeper.

“Play as hard where I can’t take you off the floor and make me be able to trust you without making mistakes,” Brinkmann said. “The girls that came in and played a lot of the third and fourth quarter did that.”

Morgan Ross finished with eight points and three rebounds as Brinkmann said she is “not playing scared” coming off a torn ACL from a season ago. Shelby Lewis had six points and six rebounds to add to the starting lineup’s production, but Raegan Anderson also stood out with her perimeter shooting and all-around play. Anderson knocked down three 3-pointers to continue a good outside shooting season for her and finished with 13 points, five rebounds and four steals.

“Raegan has great basketball IQ,” Brinkmann said. “She is somebody who I have to have on the floor because she does a lot of really good things. She’s picked it up on defense where she is able to read, ‘When do I play in the lane? When can I get a steal?’ and she’s just shooting lights out.”

Centralia began the second and third quarters in a similar way as it went into transition twice and quickly hit 3-pointers at the other end. Anderson hit two early in the second quarter and added her third in the third quarter’s opening minutes. 

Anderson said much time has gone into making her a threat from deep, but she is also effective from that range thanks to her teammates. The Lady Panthers were able to kick out to shooters after driving into the lane.

“It takes a lot of work in the offseason, but it’s only possible with teammates who are selfless,” Anderson said. “We’re a dangerous team when we play together. We have dangerous people on the dribble like when Braylin is driving in there and they’re going to stop her. That leaves me open, she passes it and I can hit some.”

Clara Quintana led Hallsville with 15 points and was part of a starting lineup that looked different than a season ago’s championship game. Still, Brinkmann said those Lady Indians that played had varsity experience and couldn’t be taken lightly after going in with the same record of 2-1.

“We did a good job of taking away their strengths and made them take really tough shots,” Brinkmann said. “With Shelby down there and Harper, I thought, did a great job of being physical. We make them take tough shots, we rebound and then we’re able to push and find our shooters in transition.”

Panthers wrestling records good results despite early ending in Marceline

Centralia wrestling didn’t have as much time to make an impact in its first action Saturday.

The Panthers competed at the Marceline Tiger Mat Classic, which ended after the fourth round because of software issues, against 11 other schools that included five top-10 Class 1 teams. Up to that point, Centralia had a 28-14 record with five undefeated wrestlers, tied Winnetonka for the most pins in the least amount of time, and scored the second-most team points of 156 behind only Versailles.

Louis Suddarth was 5-0 at 150; Weston Ward at 144, Rex Bryson at 157 and Wyatt Adkisson at 165 were each 4-0; and Bryson Dubes was 3-0 at 106. Adkisson defeated fourth-ranked Class 2 Gage St. Clair, of Moberly, by a 4-2 decision; Ward defeated fourth-ranked Mason Rongey, of Trenton; and Suddarth won a 11-6 decision against seventh-ranked Conner Menke, of Lawson. Charlie Robinson at 132 added another ranked victory of 4-2 sudden victory against fifth-ranked Andrew Griffin, of Marceline.