By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
SPRINGFIELD - After losing to Bishop LeBlond 39-35 in Bolivar back in January, Tipton was not going to be denied this time around.
Tipton (31-1) jumped out to an early lead, and never trailed in a 55-36 win over the Golden Eagles in the Class 2 girls' state basketball championship game at Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield on Saturday night.
Tipton got off to a 10-2 start, and led 15-7 at the end of the first quarter. LeBlond (28-4) got down 29-18 late in the first half, but big buckets by Shae Lewis and Kaleigh Ziesel in the closing seconds of the second quarter made it a 29-21 ballgame at halftime.
LeBlond held Tipton to just three made field goals in the third quarter, but the Golden Eagles themselves were limited to just seven third quarter points.
Down 39-28 entering the fourth, LeBlond was unable to close the gap, and Tipton outscored the Eagles 16-8 over the final eight minutes.
"Unfortunately, (Tipton) was so aggressive that we couldn't pull through and pull the foul and try to disrupt their defense," LeBlond head coach Jackie Steltenpohl said after. "Overall, we just had to execute and we didn't."
Tipton shot 54.3 percent from the field through the entire game, including 64.3 percent in the second half. LeBlond shot 35.9 percent Saturday, including just 5-of-18 in the second half.
LeBlond was 3-of-16 from three, including 0-of-7 in the second half.
"Our shots weren't falling," Steltenpohl said. "So, that kind of mentally just us down. But, they stuck with it and fought to the end."
Myra Claas, a Lincoln University signee, led Tipton with 23 points and five steals. Fellow senior Briar Cox had 12 points and 14 rebounds.
Lewis and Ziesel led LeBlond with 10 points each. Senior Tatum Studer had nine points, four steals and two assists. Junior Kyla Conard had six points on a pair of made threes. Lewis led the team with six rebounds.
It didn't end the way they had hoped, but LeBlond has much to be proud of, as the 2022-23 season comes to a close.
Lewis, Studer and fellow seniors Emma Raines and Katie Beam helped rewrite the history book for LeBlond girls' basketball the last three seasons, capturing three straight district titles, three state quarterfinal appearances, and now the first Final Four berth since 1986, and the first state title game appearance since '83.
"These seniors definitely deserve it," Steltenpohl said, "and the rest of the team, because they've worked hard all season. We can't discredit the season we had."
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