EMPORIA — Bottling up Caldwell High School throughout Thursday night, the No. 2-ranked St. John Lady Tigers stormed into tonight’s Class 1A Division-I state tournament semifinals after cruising to a 44-17 win Thursday night at White Auditorium.
The opening-round game quickly became a mismatch after the Lady Tigers, leading 20-11 at halftime, limited Caldwell to only six second-half points, including just one field goal, and forced 25 turnovers.
“We pride ourselves on defense,” St. John head coach Danny Smith said. “In our sub-state final (at South Central), we held them scoreless in the third quarter and tonight, we darn near held (Caldwell) scoreless.”
Senior post player Teresa Wade scored 14 points and junior guard Jamie Waters added 10 points for No. 3 seed St. John (22-2), which plays No. 2-seeded Waverly (22-2) tonight at 6:30. Waverly beat Centralia 46-36 on Thursday night.
“We know that we’re going to have to play better,” Smith said. “(Waverly) has a couple girls that are huge and I sure as heck wouldn’t want to arm wrestle them because they might beat me.
“They’re big strong girls, but we have confidence in our defense that we can pressure their guards and make it tough for them.”
The Lady Tigers, in the state tourney for the third time in the last four seasons, unleashed a 12-0 run during the opening 5 ½ minutes of the third quarter for a 32-11 lead.
Waters, who drew her third foul late in the second quarter, drained back-to-back 3s during the opening two minutes, 34 seconds of the third quarter. Wade then scored on three straight possessions and all of a sudden, the Lady Tigers had opened up a 21-point lead at the 2:32 mark.
The Bluejays (17-8) finally got on the scoreboard in the third period after a driving layup by Taberie Halling with 2:25 left in the period. It turned out to be their only basket in the second half as all four of their fourth-quarter points came from the free-throw line. Halling led the Bluejays with eight points.
“The girls were mad about the two points we allowed them to score,” Smith said, “but the bottom line is that we fouled too much. Whether they’re good calls or bad calls, it doesn’t matter. You have to adjust.”
Caldwell converted 10 of 12 foul shots on the night, but struggled mightily from the floor, missing 25 of its 28 shots for only 10.7 percent.
The Lady Tigers knocked down 10 of 17 field goals in the second half for 58.8 percent.
“We knew that we needed to keep shooting,” said Wade, who finished 6 for 11 from the floor and made both of her free throws. “We weren’t really shooting much in the first half.
“I think people were really running our plays right (after halftime).”
The only lull St. John experienced in the first half occurred when Wade was fouled at the 5:18 mark with the Lady Tigers leading 14-7. Wade had a contact lens knocked out of her eye on the play and had to leave the game. Rhian Collins replaced her and sank both free throws to make it 16-7.
St. John managed only four points the remainder of the half, including a driving layup by Waters and Wade making a basket in transition off a Caldwell turnover for its nine-point lead at halftime.
The Lady Tigers made only 8 of 24 shots (33 percent) in the first half. But defensively, they limited Caldwell to only 2-for-15 first-half shooting and forced the Bluejays into 11 turnovers during that stretch.

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Class 1A Division-I
State Tournament

At Emporia
White Auditorium

GIRLS

Thursday

St. John 44, Caldwell 17
CALDWELL (17-8)
     Tyann Isaacs 0-2 0-0 0, Lexie Rice 0 4-4 4, Taberie Halling 2-8 4-4 8, Kambree York 1-10 2-4 5, Rachel Arnold 0-4 0-0 0, Carli Ward 0-1 0-0 0, Sydnee York 0-2 0-0 0, Grace Lebeda 0-1 0-0 0, Kaityn Dvorak 0 0-0 0, Brooke Kuehny 0-0 0-0 0, Kami Nimitz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 3-28 10-12 17.
ST. JOHN (22-2)
     Morgan Osborne 1-6 1-2 3, Jamie Waters 4-7 0-1 10, Teresa Christie 1-2 0-0 2, Alexis Witt 2-4 0-0 4, Teresa Wade 6-11 2-2 14, Tia Smith 1-3 0-0 2, Jessica Hanson 0-0 0-1 0, Haley Falk 0-0 0-0 0, Tara Christie 2-3 0-0 5, Rhian Collins 1-5 2-2 4, Ashlyn Fisher 0-0 0-0 0, Kendra Hacker 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-41 5-9 44.
Caldwell                    5    6    2    4  —  17
St. John                   12    8   17   7  —  44
     Three-point goals — St. John 3-12 (Waters 2-4, Christie 1-2, Osborne 0-3, Wade 0-1, Smith 0-1, Collins 0-1); Caldwell 1-4 (York 1-4). Rebounds — St. John 32 (Osborne 5, Christie 5, Collins 4, Waters 4); Caldwell 21 (Arnold 8). Assists — St. John 14 (Osborne 6); Caldwell 1 (Rice). Steals — St. John 12 (Osborne 4, Waters 3); Caldwell 3 (Halling). Turnovers — Caldwell 25, St. John 16.

Class 1A Division-I
Thursday’s results
Hoxie 71, Centre 29
Spearville 51, Pike Valley 34
Waverly 46, Centralia 36
St. John 44, Caldwell 17