EMPORIA — It wasn’t some of their best work.
However, the St. John-Hudson High School girls’ basketball team advanced to the semifinals of the Class 1A Division-I state tournament after a 55-26 victory over Lost Springs-Centre on Wednesday night at White Auditorium in Emporia.
“I felt we played hard,” St. John head coach Danny Smith said. “We just missed a lot of easy shots in the first half that could’ve helped us out. Then we got in foul trouble, but by halftime we’d started to get things figured out.”
The Lady Tigers, who are the No. 3 seed in the tournament, shot a meager 36 percent (21 for 58) from the field, but made up for it with 30 steals, causing the Lady Cougars to commit 42 turnovers in the game.
“Thank heavens for our defense,” Smith said, “because we really needed it tonight. We did defend really well.”
St. John’s Alexis Witt, a 5-foot-9 post player, finished with a game-high 14 points.
“She worked her tail off inside,” Smith said. “She got some rebounds and putbacks, which was something we really needed. It was nice, because they took away some of our other players, so we needed someone to step up. She was able to do that for us.”
Senior Jamie Waters added 10 points and a team-leading seven steals for the Lady Tigers. Morgan Osborne recorded seven rebounds and scored five points.
St. John made only 9 of 18 free throws (50 percent).
“We finished at 36 percent from the field, so it wasn’t too bad,” Smith said. “It was just that we were missing easy shots that we should’ve been hitting in the first half. We also missed some free throws that would’ve helped us. We can’t do that against Hoxie.”
The Lady Tigers advance to a semifinal game on Friday at 3 p.m. against No. 2-seeded Hoxie, which defeated South Haven 81-36 on Wednesday night.
Hoxie and St. John met last year at the state championship game, a 55-45 Hoxie victory.
“They are similar to us in how they play defense,” Smith said. “They shoot the ball very well. They have girls who will hit multiple 3-pointers in a game, so we’re going to have to defend well on the perimeter.
“We need to make them earn it somewhere else.”

                                                                                             — Kevin Price

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Class 1A Division-I State Tournament

GIRLS

Wednesday

At Emporia
White Auditorium

St. John-Hudson 55,
Lost Springs-Centre 26
CENTRE (16-7)
    Svoboda 1-3 1-2 4, S. Makovec 3-8 3-6 9, A. Makovec 1-2 1-2 3, Rudolph 0-3 0-0 0, Basore 01 2-4 2, Shields 0-2 0-0 0, Deines 1-1 0-0 2, Simons 2-5 0-0 6. Totals 8-25 7-15 26.
ST. JOHN (21-2)
    Tia Smith 2-6 0-0 5, Jessica Hanson 2-7 0-0 4, Marsena Irvine 0-1 0-0 0, Morgan Osborne 2-7 1-1 5, Jamie Waters 3-9 2-3 10, Tara Christie 1-4 3-4 5, Maddy Lippoldt 1-4 0-0 2, Alexis Witt 6-13 2-4 14, Brandi Hanson 1-1 0-1 3, Teresa Christie 3-6 1-5 7. Totals 21-58 9-18 55.
Centre        4      6      5     11  —  26
St. John     12    14    20     9   —  55
    Three-point goals — Centre 3-10 (); St. John 4-18 (Waters 2-4, Smith 1-5, B. Hanson 1-1, J. Hanson 0-4, Osborne 0-3, Lippoldt 0-1). Total fouls — Centre 13, St. John 19. Fouled out — St. John (Hanson, Te. Christie); Centre (None).