North Callaway girls can’t get close enough in 54-40 loss to Boonville

The North Callaway girls were only down by four in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Centralia Invitational Tournament Photo Gallery

Still, the Ladybirds had struggled against Boonville’s defense prior to the Lady Pirates closing the game on a 14-4 run to defeat North Callaway 54-40 in the first round of the Centralia Invitational Tournament on Monday. Boonville outrebounded North Callaway 43-32 to send the Ladybirds to today’s 9 p.m. consolation game against Eastern Missouri Conference foe Van-Far.

Head coach Andrew Klein said North Callaway (1-2) had a similar offensive night in Centralia to open the season. The Ladybirds lost to the Lady Panthers 62-36, and he said the same struggles were popping up against the Lady Pirates (2-0).

"Boonville did a good job of making it difficult on us, similar to how Centralia played earlier on in the year against us," Klein said. "They pressure the ball and don't let you have easy passes and use their physicality to their advantage. At the end of day, we have to move a little bit harder on offense, and that's through coaching too."

Riley Blevins led North Callaway with 11 points and three blocks, registering four points and two blocks near the end of the first quarter after re-entering with three fouls. The Ladybirds only trailed 15-14 at that point and then tied the game at 19 in the second quarter on a Lakyn Hartley transition 3-pointer but then fell behind some more.

Natalie Shryock finished with nine points and three 3-pointers, hitting one of them to beat the buzzer to end the third quarter with a 36-31 deficit. That 3-pointer was also in transition, but North Callaway couldn’t find as many answers in its half-court offense.

“We had an off-night shooting,” Klein said. “I expect more than what we made goes in next game.”

Kymorie Myers was North Callaway’s best rebounder as she finished with eight boards to go with her eight points. Boonville had solid rebounding throughout its team, including 14 rebounds from Zoe Davis to go with her 13 points, and used that advantage to build bigger leads late in the game. Klein said the defense wasn’t bad, but Boonville had too many scoring opportunities through late turnovers and especially offensive rebounds.

“We didn’t block out well enough,” Klein said. “You try to jump with a team that is taller than us and more athletic than us, and that’s what you’re going to get. They just got too many second-chance opportunities on us. When you let a team shoot two or three times every possession, that’s how you’re going to lose.”

North Callaway’s Kimbley medals at Ray Stockdale, T-Birds finish third

Lane Kimbley didn’t take long to be a champion for North Callaway wrestling this season.

On Saturday at the Ray Stockdale Invitational in Knob Noster, Kimbley finished first in the 144-pound weight class and five more Thunderbirds finished in the top 3 to help the team be in the top 3 out of 14 schools.

Kimbley won by pinfall three times — once in the first period — after receiving a bye. He was the leading scorer in the Thunderbirds’ 142 points.

Tristan Young finished second at 120 after receiving a bye, winning by pinfall twice and being pinned in the third period; Collin Moore was also second in his weight class at 150 after scoring two pinfalls following a bye; and Casper Safranski was second at 215 after three pinfall victories — once in first period — and a 7-0 decision loss to Lafayette County’s Caden Munson.

Cooper Safranski was third at 138 after winning his final four matches of the day, including a 14-2 major decision and three pinfalls. Christian Moore was also third at 157 after finishing with three pinfalls.

In a Thursday quad in Versailles, the North Callaway boys finished 2-1 during the night with victories of 60-18 against Buffalo and 48-36 against Boonville while losing 42-31 to Versailles. For the girls, Brooke Giboney finished 3-0 with three pins and Abigail Schmidt was 1-2 with a pin.