St. Joe's Begins Quest for State Title

It is very seldom that the best four teams in the state make it to the final four.

In many instances it is because of the alignment of the districts and brackets where the top teams meet early in the playoffs as was the case last year when St. Joseph's and Incarnate Word were both in the same district.

And then there are the Cinderella teams which pull off upsets somewhere along the road to Columbia.

But this year the four teams which were considered the best in Class 5 from the very early stages of the season have survived and will match up for what promises to be one of the best girls tournaments in state history.

The field includes not one, but two defending state champions. Incarnate Word defends its Class 5 title while Webb City moves up a class after winning the Class 4 championship last year.

Blue Springs returns after two consecutive trips to the Class 5 championship game.

And then there is St. Joe's which hopes to bring back the championship trophy for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

"It should be quite a tournament," St. Joe's coach Julie Matheny said. "You couldn't have drawn it up any better. No one had any hiccups along the way and there should be some great games. It is going to come down to which team makes a play, a free throw or a stop at the right time. I don't think you are going to see any double digit spreads."

There have been some match-ups during the regular season between the four teams and all have been close. St. Joe's split with Incarnate Word, losing 64-63 in the championship of the Visitation Tournament on Dec. 27. The Angels outscored Incarnate Word 24-8 in the fourth quarter to win 61-53 on Jan. 29.

St. Joe's also defeated Blue Springs 71-69 in overtime on Jan. 15. Incarnate Word lost to both Blue Springs (43-42) and Webb City (61-57) in January.

The Angels (27-3) will open up against Blue Springs (27-2) Friday at 6:40 p.m. at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia. The Wildcats will have all-state post player Aja Washington in the lineup Friday. Washington missed the St. Joe's game and almost the entire regular season with a thumb injury. Point guard Brittany Clement is also back at full strength. She missed about 15 games with a bad knee and had just come back for the St. Joe's game.

"We didn't really get back to full health until the last game of the regular season," said Wildcats coach Mark Spigarelli. "It is nice to have everyone back but we are not quite as fluid now as when we had our seven-player rotation."

Blue Springs  is led by two-time all-state player Cee Cee Burris, who scored 24 in the game against St. Joe's. Junior Tyanna Snow is another player to watch for the Wildcats. The daughter of former Kansas City Chief linebacker Percy Snow is extremely athletic.

Spigarelli, who coached four state championship teams while at Pembroke Hill, is hoping to bring Blue Springs its first state title. He looks forward to the rematch with St. Joe's.

"We present match-up problems for each other," Spigarelli said. "They have the size and we have a lot of speed. We like to play aggressively with an up-tempo style. I just hope we can get by that first game and I can sit back and relax and watch that second game."

The other Class 5 semifinal features the defending Class 5 and Class 4 champions. Incarnate Word (25-4) got a big boost at the start of the semester when Taylor Manuel, a transfer from Hazelwood Central, became eligible. She leads the team with a 12.8 average. Webb City (27-2) has not lost to a team from Missouri. The Cardinal losses came against Wichita Heights from Kansas and Midwest City from Oklahoma. Webb City averages almost 65 points game. They have three players who average over 14 a game, led by Kaitlin Jaeger (17.5).

"Incarnate Word has that championship mentality and Taylor Manuel is the real deal," Matheny said. "And Webb City is fundamentally one of the best teams I have ever seen."

It should be a memorable weekend in Columbia.

The girls Class 5 championship game will be held Saturday at 8:30 p.m. The third place game will be Saturday at 1:15 p.m.