St. Joe's and MICDS Earn Top Seeds

The MICDS girls basketball team concluded the most successful regular season in school history Thursday night with a 51-45 victory over Principia.

The Rams finished with a 21-1 record which eclipsed the previous best record of 19-7 which they set last season.

"It was a great regular season," MICDS junior Campbell Torchin said. "But we can't go into districts thinking we are 21-1. This is a brand new season and everyone is 0-0."

And there is little chance that the Rams will not be ready for districts as their lone loss of the season came against Westminster Christian, which is seeded second behind MICDS.

"I think it will help with our motivation if we get to play them again," MICDS Coach Scott Small said. "We played them in their gym after a couple of snow days and they were ready to play and we were not. We just needed to do a better job of matching up with their shooters."

MICDS will open up play Wednesday at 4 p.m. against the winner of Monday's opening round game between Clayton and University City. Westminster will have a tough test against third-seeded Villa Duchesne in the other semifinal game Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

"The Westminster/Villa game should be a real good one," Torchin said. "I am hoping we get a chance to play Westminster again. We will go out with a lot of passion and effort. The main thing we need to do is to give 100 percent effort for 32 minutes. You can't afford to have any two or three minutes of poor play."

MICDS defeated Westminster in the district final last year for its first district title. The Rams then lost to Miller Career on a buzzer-beater in sectionals.

The Class 4 District 6 title game is scheduled for Friday at  5:30 p.m.

Most teams which finish the regular season with only one loss are rewarded with a top seed. That is not the case in the Class 5, District 3 Tournament at Webster Groves as Ladue is seeded second behind St. Joseph's Academy.

"I don't know why the powers that be have put Ladue against the top teams in the area," Rams Coach Cord Dockery said. "The last two years we have been in with both St. Joe's and Incarnate Word and now this year and next year we are still with St. Joe's. I look at some of the other districts and see where we could do really well but it is what it is."

And what the Class 5 District 3 tournament is, is one which is both top heavy and without a weak team. Nerinx Hall, Webster and Ursuline are all teams which are capable of competing in many other area districts.

Dockery would love to get a chance to possibly play St. Joe's in the championship game. But he knows he has a real challenge in his first game Tuesday at 6 p.m against Nerinx.

"Nerinx plays a very tough schedule and they play a similar style of play to us," Dockery said. "They have 6-3 and 6-1 girls and they like to play in the half-court. Our bigs will need to play well and the guards will need to handle the pressure. We will need to play our best to beat them."

St. Joe's comes into the tournament with a 22-3 record. The Angels have won 12 of their last 13 games, including an impressive 70-44 victory over 21-win Fort Zumwalt West Tuesday night. Morgan Stock hit six 3-pointers in that game while her sister, Maddie, hit seven in a 92-40 win over St. Theresa's.

"Fort Zumwalt West is a top five team and St. Joe's beat them by almost 30," Dockery said. "The Stock girls are really tough to stop and (Sydney) Stipanovich is very talented inside. Those three girls average as many points as most teams do."

Dockery just hopes that his team can defeat Nerinx and have a chance to play the Angels in the championship game Friday at 7 p.m.

St. Joe's gets a first round bye and will play the winner of Monday's game between Webster and Ursuline in the semifinals Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.