Strong start carries Holcomb past Malden 58-42 in semifinal of BHC varsity girls basketball tournament

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
Holcomb's Bailey Cupples penetrates against the Malden defense in a semifinal of the Bootheel Conference varsity girls basketball tournament Monday at Campbell High School.

CAMPBELL - The Holcomb Hornets varsity girls basketball squad moved one step closer to its first Bootheel Conference Tournament championship in school history Monday night.

No. 1 seeded Holcomb jumped out to an 11-0 lead and led wire to wire as it beat the No. 4 seeded Malden Green Wave 58-42 in the first semifinal of the Bootheel Conference Tournament at Campbell High School.

“I thought we had a pretty good start defensively,” Holcomb coach Alexa Stockton said. “We came out in a 1-3-1 and they hadn’t seen that defense yet. We wanted to surprise them and we didn’t think they would be expecting it. I still thought we looked a little timid on offense but anytime you are on a big stage trying to get to a championship game that’s going to happen.”

Malden did not record a field goal until Allison DeArman made consecutive two pointers in the second quarter to trim Holcomb’s lead to signal digits at 15-7 with 5:11 left in the first half. Holcomb outscored Malden 15-5 the remainder of the first half to pad its lead to 30-12 by the halftime break.

“They were hot early,” Malden coach Josh Herring said. “It wasn’t that our defense was bad. They just shot a higher percentage than we did. They put the ball in the hole and we struggled to score for the longest time. I didn’t think we did that bad of a job defensively. They just shot the ball better than we did.”

Malden did not allow a field goal in the opening three minutes of the second half as it crept as close as 31-16 by the 5:08 mark of the third quarter.

“We’ve been really working on some things on the defensive end that could really help out this bunch,” Herring said. “We did a really good job defending them early in the second half. They just found a few more scoring opportunities then we did throughout the game.”

Holcomb responded with three 3-pointers in the final five minutes of the third quarter - two by Selena Burress and another by Alyssa Brown - to increase its lead to 44-25 by the start of the fourth quarter.

“Malden made a great run at us at the beginning of the second half,” Stockton said. “Then Selena hit a 3-pointer and that seemed to kill their momentum.”

Malden outscored Holcomb 17-13 in the final eight minutes of regulation to narrow the margin of defeat to 16 points. Senior forward Madison Saulbery helped fuel the Green Wave’s late offensive surge by scoring eight of her team-high 17 points in the fourth quarter.

“She’s a great player,” Herring said. “She makes the game very simple with what she does. She’s been a really solid player for us all season long that gives us everything she’s got. She’s a great kid overall as well and we are going to miss her when she graduates this year for sure.”

Four players scored at least 10 points for Holcomb.

Senior forward Bailey Cupples paced the Hornets with 17 points. Senior guard Macy Houart added 14 points. Junior Selena Burress and senior Hannah Burk contributed 10 points each for Holcomb.

“That’s what we are wanting,” Stockton said. “So many teams are wanting to play a Triangle and Two or Box and One on Macy and Bailey so we need to find a way to balance our scoring so they cannot completely focus their defense on those two.”

Holcomb (13-5) will take on defending conference tournament champion Hayti Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the conference final at Campbell High School.

“It’s the first time we’ve made it to the finals of this tournament,” Stockton said. “Last year we got the one seed and we were really hoping to make it to the finals but we had a letdown in the semifinals. This year our girls have come back hungrier and have found a way to get to the finals. We are also facing a district opponent Thursday so we will be looking at what we having coming in two weeks as well.”

Holcomb 58, Malden 42

MALDEN (42) - Rachel Rommel 4, Antwanasia Bloniarz-Smoot 1, Brydon Maddox 8, Hailey Rojas 8, Allison DeArman 4, Madison Saulsbery 17. FG 17 FT 6/12, F 13. (3-pointers: Rojas 1, Saulsbery 1; Fouled out: None.)

HOLCOMB (58) - Macy Houart 14, Kaetlyn Danley 2, Bailey Cupples 17, Alyssa Brown 3, Meleigh Lemings 2, Selena Burress 10, Hannah Burk 10. FG 22, FT 10/14, F 13. (3-pointers: Burress 2, Burk 1; Fouled out: None.)

Photo by Dustin Ward, staff
Malden's Madison Saulsbery launches a 3-pointer against Holcomb in a semifinal at the Bootheel Conference varsity girls basketball tournament Monday at Campbell High School.