By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
STANBERRY - The Stanberry girl's basketball team is young with just two seniors.
It's also a fairly small bunch with just 11 players. But, everyone has a part to play, and so far, they're all playing them quite well.
The Bulldogs (9-2), ranked No. 5 in Class 1, used a balanced scoring attack to defeat Albany, 37-23, in a Thursday semifinal at the Stanberry Invitational.
The Bulldogs committed 12 fouls and had 10 turnovers, but they did enough to get themselves back into the Stanberry Invitational title game for the third time in four years.
"We came out and had some breakdowns there throughout the game, but we kind of worked through those and I guess we came back and got the win," Stanberry head coach Karla McQueen said. "We have to work on some things, and that kind of showed tonight, but these girls work hard and I think we'll get the job done."
Seven different players scored, led by junior Lexi Craig and senior Riley McQueen, who each had 10. Senior Morgan Wallace scored seven.
"There's a lot of good team leadership," McQueen said. "They know they have to work hard to get better. They come to practice and work hard every day. That's kind of the thing here at Stanberry, and they're kind of carrying on that tradition."
Stanberry started off strong with a 7-2 lead, but Albany ended the first quarter on a 6-0 run to game a slim lead.
The Bulldogs trailed 14-7, but stormed back to take a 20-14 lead at halftime, and would never lose their advantage again.
Defensively, Stanberry forced 19 turnovers and held the Warriors (6-3) to just nine second half points.
Up next for Stanberry is No. 1 seed Platte Valley (12-0), who took down King City, 60-33, in the first semifinal Thursday afternoon.
"We have to take care of ourselves," McQueen said, "and work on the things we need to do to get better."
Platte Valley and Stanberry face off on Saturday at 12:30 p.m.
Stanberry 37 - 7, 13, 9, 8
Albany 23 - 8, 6, 3, 6
Stanberry scoring - Lexi Craig - 10, Riley McQueen - 10, Morgan Wallace - 7, Astasia Brown - 2, Sadie Runde - 2, Kiley Mattson - 2, Amelia Wallace - 2
Albany scoring - Gabby Newman - 18, Kayce Messner - 4, Sierra Anthony - 1
