Community R-VI sophomore Alexis Welch finds a seam between two Green City players as she looks to score in Friday's Class 1 girls state quarterfinal game in Moberly. Welch contributed seven points to help the Lady Trojans defeat the Gophers 60-53. [Chuck Embree/The Mexico Ledger]

MOBERLY — With a trip to the Class 1 girls basketball Final Four at stake, every possession by No. 1-ranked Community R-VI and eighth-ranked Green City was a grind.

Each defense sought to impose its will in this highly-contested quarterfinal among schools that shared identical records going into tip-off.

In the end, Community of Laddonia survived a choppy game that seemingly had more stops than starts — thanks to several fouls — by leaning on senior Natalie Thomas when the going got tough.

After struggling at the stripe, making just 5 of 14 free throws, Community made 9 of 10 in the final minute of play, with Thomas going 6-for-6 during this crucial stretch.

As a result, the Lady Trojans pulled away to burrow the Gophers 60-53 at Moberly Area Community College.

The outcome nearly mirrored last year's quarterfinal between the two teams when the Lady Trojans won 61-50 in a game played at Salisbury en route to Community finishing third at state.

Thomas, who played with three fouls in the last 14 minutes of the game and was assessed her fourth with about two minutes left, dropped in a pair of 3-pointers and finished the night making 9 of 11 free throws while scoring 19 of her team-high 29 points in the second half.

Community senior Dalaney Bowers also made two 3s to score 13 points for the cause.

“We had girls that stepped up their play and it came from ones that had been injured who pushed through their pain to help us grind out this win, and they were a big part of helping our team to return to the state finals,” Thomas said.

“I really did not think too much about me getting three early fouls like that or let it faze me. I kept playing hard, knowing that I needed to play smarter basketball as the game went on. The fouls were not going to keep me from playing and defending aggressively, or prevent me from taking the ball hard to the hole. There was too much at stake for our team in this game, and all of us needed to put everything we had into it.”

For their reward, the Community girls (28-1) advance to the 2020 MSHSAA Class 1 Girls State Championships for the second straight season this coming Thursday and Friday in Springfield.

The Lady Trojans will march into the 5:10 p.m. Thursday semifinal to wage battle against Walnut Grove (26-5).

“Winning this game means everything to our girls,” Community coach Bob Curtis said of getting back to the Final Four. “They've worked so hard in wanting to get another shot at winning a state championship. I think us going into state this year, the girls are entering it with a more business-like approach because they were there last season rather than wide-eyed and full of wonder. We're definitely excited to be going back. We have some unfinished business to take care of this time.”

“Green City is a fantastic basketball program and it took everything we had to beat them. If you look at our two programs, we have a combined 190 wins the past four years, so this tells you something about how tough of a game this was for both of us as it was two really good teams going at it hard. We are excited to have survived them.”

Community double-teamed Green City senior Brooke Littrell, who has amassed more than 3,200 total points in her brilliant career with the Gophers (27-2), whenever the three-time all-state star touched the ball and did not mind leaving one of Green City's players open for much of the night.

Despite this effort, the 6-foot-1 Littrell was good enough to score 35 points. She attracted enough attention to cause one Community player to foul out, two others to be assessed four fouls and another two to garner three that would put Littrell on the stripe 18 times. She never missed a free throw.

“Brooke has been the building block for our school's program and she has been facing double-teams or a chaser all season long, so what she faced tonight is nothing new,” Green City coach Cody Moore said. “However, Community brought a little more heat and intensity with it than she's faced before and they were a bit more physical on the floor. They made her work extra hard in this game, and you won't find players other than Brooke that can face that kind of heat and still score the kind of points she did.

“We came into this game as the underdogs to Community. We had Brooke, and they have Natalie Thomas who is a great player for them. But one of the key differences in the game was we turned the ball over during crucial times when we were about to tie or we could not hold the lead. This probably happened five or six times in the game. Community was so aggressive with their pressure and they would take advantage of our mistakes at the end to pull away.”

The Lady Trojans clung to a 9-8 score when the first quarter ended, led 20-17 at the half and held a 37-34 advantage when the fourth segment began.

There were three ties and seven lead changes in the game.

The last time Green City had the upper hand occurred when Celeste Athon hit an open 3 with 2:42 left in the third quarter for a 30-28 edge.

Community shot 43% from the floor (20-of-47), including 4 of 10 threes, but struggled at the stripe. The Lady Trojans finished the night making 14 of 24 free throws. However, Community went 9-for-11 in the final minute of play thanks in part to Thomas draining all six of her attempts.

“Natalie Thomas for us and Brooke Littrell for Green City are as good as advertised. Natalie certainly came through big for us down the stretch. What helped us is that Natalie was surrounded by some great help once again and it's not just our four other starters,” Curtis said. “Deann Brooks, for example, is someone coming off an injury and she came off the bench to not only score six points in the game, but her defensive effort was something else as she drew two charges from Littrell that prevented her from scoring.”

Alexis Welch supplied seven points for Community, while Sadie Hoyt and Brianna Beamer added three and two points, respectively.

The Gophers made 43% of their shots taken from the floor (15-for-35) and made 18 of 23 free throws.

Green City received 10 points from Tanner Tipton, while both Delaney Embree and Athon made a 3-pointer.

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