Tournament Time For Area Basketball Teams

The beginning of high school basketball season usually means tournament action and that was the case for many of the South County-area boys and girls teams last week with more tournaments scheduled for this week.

The Southside Classic has been an annual start for several schools and action was held last week at for the boys and Affton High School for the girls.

The Bayless boys advanced to the championship game in the boys tournament before falling in the finals to St. Louis University High 68-41.

The Bronchos got off to a rocky start in their first round game against DuBourg as they trailed 29-16 at the half. But they rebounded to outscore the Cavaliers 31-12 in the second half in a 47-41 win. Edin Mehmedovic had 16 points to pace the Bronchos. Mehmedovic had 16 once again in the semifinals and Patrick Triplett had 19 in a tight 50-48 victory over St. Mary's.

Affton was the other area team to come away with two wins in the tourney. The Cougars had to face eventual champion SLUH in the first round and fell 78-58. But they came back to edge Mehlville 58-56 and then beat DuBourg 53-39 in the consolation championship game. The Cougars scored just two first quarter points against DuBourg but followed with 20 in the second quarter to take charge.

Lutheran South opened with a 52-37 win over Mehlville but then fell to SLUH (78-64) and St. Mary's (60-55 in overtime). Ryan Strohm made five of his six 3-point attempts for the Lancers against St. Mary's but the rest of the team was just 2-for-22.

Mehlville lost to Lutheran South (52-3) and Affton (58-56) before closing on a good note with a 50-42 win over Hancock. Brendan Merz hit 11 3-pointers in the tournament. Adis Mujakic had 22 points and 13 rebounds in the close loss to Affton.

Mehlville and Affton each won two games in the girls side of the Southside Classic.

Mehlville, which was the defending champion, opened with a . The Panthers lost in the semifinals to Notre Dame (46-38) and won the third place game against Lutheran South (55-41). Allison Johnson had 16 to pace the Panthers in the win against the Lancers.

Affton had a tough opening round loss to DuBourg (41-36) but then had convincing wins over Hancock (64-15) and St. Elizabeth's (62-41). Hali Ford scored in double figures all three games for the Cougars. She also had seven of her team's 22 steals against the Hawks.

Bayless lost its first two games to Notre Dame (75-21) and St. Elizabeth's (31-25) and trailed after a quarter to Hancock 12-10 in the seventh place game. But it was all Bronchos the rest of the way as they outscored Hancock 45-10 in the final three quarters and won 55-22. Brittany Walker had 21 points, 11 rebounds and six steals against the Tigers.

Lutheran South rolled in its first game against Hancock (58-9) before falling to eventual champion DuBourg (46-30) and Mehlville (55-41). The Lancers were just 13 of 51 from the field (25.5 percent) against the Panthers.

The Lindbergh girls won twice in the Jim Salsman Memorial Girls Tournament at Fox High School. The Flyers won the consolation championship as they beat Fox (49-40) and Jennings (58-44) after an opening round loss to Rosati-Kain (48-31).

The other area teams were a combined 2-7 in the tournament. Seckman had a thrilling first round win over Jennings (40-39) but then lost to eventual champion Ursuline (66-35) and Rosati-Kain (47-33).

Rockwood Summit lost convincingly to Ursuline (70-28) and Jennings (52-25) before beating Fox (47-20) in the seventh place game. The host Warriors had lost to Ladue (42-33) and Lindbergh (49-40). Erin Birschbach had 17 points and 15 rebounds against the Flyers.

Oakville and Cor Jesu will be playing this week in the Nerinx Hall Tournament. Oakville opens against Visitation Monday at 3:45 p.m. Cor Jesu will follow with a game against Riverview Gardens at 5:30.

University City, Parkway West, McCluer South-Berkeley and Nerinx Hall are the other teams in the tournament, which will have its championship game Thursday at 7 p.m.

The Seckman, Northwest and Lindbergh boys will be competing in the Gene Steighorst (Hillsboro) Tournament this week.

Seckman faces De Soto in the first round Monday at 6 p.m. Northwest and Lindbergh play each other Tuesday at 7:30. Windsor, Festus, Hillsboro and Francis Howell Central round out the field. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

The Oakville boys will be competing in the very competitive Webster Groves Classic. The Tigers open against Belvidere North Thursday at 8:30 p.m. Lee's Summit North, Marquette, SLUH, Maplewood, Miller Career and Webster are also in the tournament. The championship game is Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

Patch Male Athlete of the Week: Affton's Sean Benedict had a big tournament in the Southside Classic. Benedict was 8-for-9 from the field and scored 18 points in the loss to SLUH and had 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting against DuBourg. Benedict also had double digit rebounds in all three games.

Patch Female Athlete of the Week: Lindbergh's Lindsey Bozdeck had a dominating game against Jennings. She scored 21 points and grabbed 17 rebounds.