Senior-dominated Mascoutah wins first Nashville Tournament championship

When asked this week how many times Mascoutah had played in the Nashville Girls Thanksgiving Basketball Tournament, Indians coach Terry Moeller couldn’t give an exact number. But Moeller does know the number of times Mascoutah has won it.

Just a week removed from helping the Indians place third at the Class 3A State Volleyball Tournament, senior Maddie Nekola scored 15 points as Mascoutah defeated Massac County 45-28 in the title game at Nashville High School.

“This is the first time we have won here. We played in the Salem Tournament a couple of times and so we haven’t been here every year, but I would probably say we’ve played in it seven or eight times,’’ Moeller said. “I don’t know if I would say we played that well. But we are a senior-ladden team and for a lot of these girls this is their second or third year of playing.

“I think our experience was a factor in the fourth quarter and we played just well enough to win.’’

Amaya Keeling had 12 points and Tennaye Green added 10 points for the Indians who outscored Massac County 31-16 in the second half to win going away. The victory also gives the Indians a little revenge as it was Massac County which ended Mascoutah’s season a year ago with a victory at the Class 3A Highland Sectional.

While three players finished in double figures for the Indians, Moeller also got key contributions from Erin Brooks, Katie Jokisch and Kennedy Bryant among others as his squad improved to 4-0 for the season.

As it has become known for the Indians relied on a lock-down defense during the tournament. Only once in four games did Mascoutah allow 38 or more points and twice held its opponents to 30 points or less.

“We rely on our defense because we just don’t score a lot of points,’’ Moeller said. “I was pleased at our patience on offense and like I said we were able to points to get the job done. It was a good weekend, the girls played well.’’

Unfortunatly for the Indians, their Mississippi Valley Conference opener on Monday didn’t go as well. Triad, behind the scoring of senior Sophie Thompson, defeated Mascoutah 55-46.

“Highland, CM (Civic Memorial), Triad and ourselves are four pretty competitive programs then you have Jerseyville which is solid and also Waterloo which looks to be much improved. From top-to-bottom, you have six pretty good teams,’’ Moeller said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if two losses won the conference this year.’’

89 AND COUNTING

Unbeaten in Southwestern Conference play for the past six years, the Edwardsville Tigers will take an 89-game SWC winning streak and put it on the line when they travel to Collinsville on Thursday to battle the Kahoks in the league opener for both teams.

The Kahoks (3-1) are coming off a solid effort at the Nashville Thanksgiving Tournament last week will battle an Edwardsville team which returns its three top scorers from a 2014-15 season in which they reached the Class 4A Supersectional and lost just one game.

Edwardsville hasn’t missed a beat in its first four games this season. Led by juniors Makenzie Silvey and Criste’on Waters and sophomore Rachel Pranger, Edwardsville defeated Champiagn Central (81-23), St. Louis Metro (73-19), Rochester (61-34) and Peoria High (80-30) in winning the Springfield Southeast Tournament last week.

Pranger averaged 17.8 points to lead Edwardsville while Silvey (15.5) and sophomore Kate Martin (14.8) also had excellent weekends.

UPCOMING GAMES

The Edwardsville at Collinsville showdown on Thursday is just one of several top early season games on tap in the next week. Also scheduled for Thursday is Highland traveling seven miles down the road to take on Triad in a Mississippi Valley Conference game.

Althoff will play at Carbondale on Saturday with state-ranked Central playing at Mater Dei on Monday in the annual battle of Breese. Belleville East will travel north to take on state power Edwardsville on Tuesday with Triad playing at Civic Memorial on Wednesday.

HIGHLAND PLACES THIRD AT SALEM

The Highland High School girls basketball team overcame a four-point deficit in the final 15 seconds to stun Civic Memorial with a 53-51 come-from-behind victory and bag third place Saturday night at the 15^th annual Salem Lady Wildcat Thanksgiving Tournament.

The Lady Bulldogs (3-2) nearly pulled off a huge comeback win earlier in the day in the semifinals against Teutopolis. Highland battled back from a 12-point deficit and event went ahead by two points with chances to pull it out before ultimately falling 54-51 to Teutopolis.

The host Salem Lady Wildcats won their own tournament for just the second time after going 5-0, capped off by an impressive 48-36 win over previously unbeaten Teutopolis (4-1) in the title game.

Three Highland players were named to the two all-tournament teams, led by senior Amanda Ponce netting first-team honors. She was joined by tournament MVP Dearia Watson of Salem. Joining Ponce and Watson on the all-tournament first team were Salem’s Maddi Hood, Civic Memorial’s Allie Troeckler and Teutopolis’ Shelby Thompson.

“We have a lot of improvement to make,” Ponce said. “We need to learn to play with each other to be the best that we can be. With every loss comes lessons to be learned, and it’s good to have them at the beginning of the season. The tournament is going to help us learn and grow throughout the season. Looking forward to cleaning things up during this week while we prepare for our first conference game against Triad (on Thursday).”

Highland juniors Alex LaPorta and Madison Wellen were selected to the all-tournament second team. Joining them on the all-tournament second team were Anna Hartke and Molly Smith of Teutopolis and Ellisha Davis of Belleville East.

Daniel Fussner also provided items for this story

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 10:48 PM with the headline "Senior-dominated Mascoutah wins first Nashville Tournament championship."