Meteors fly by Pirates in Lebanon Regional

Marissa/Coulterville kicked off the Class 1A post-season with a 54-32 win over Valmeyer Monday night in the Lebanon Regional.

For their efforts the Meteors get a date with Okawville – the state’s No. 2 rated team and ranked No. 2 in the News-Democrat’s small-school poll – in Tuesday night’s semifinal.

“We were going through the line after the game with Valmeyer and they were all saying ‘good luck tomorrow night’, we are going to need way more than luck,” Marissa coach Scott Wine said. “They are by far the best team we’ve seen this year. They beat us by 40 earlier in the season and they went easy on us. But we are going to be loose and easy and just see what happens.”

The Meteors were fairly loose and easy from beyond the 3-point arc against Valmeyer. Marissa hit three of its eight three’s in the first quarter when they jumped out to a 15-2 lead after one quarter of play.

The Pirates whittled the lead down to five points with 3:48 to go in the third quarter following a bucket by Michael Chism, but Marissa would close the period on a 13-2 run – which included three more 3-pointers – to put the game away.

“We just stuck with what we were doing,” Wine said. “We didn’t turn the ball over much and we got some good, open shots, but most importantly for us we didn’t foul. They never got into the bonus in the second half and that’s usually our bug-a-boo.”

Kyle Smith led the Meteors with 23 points, as Ryan Howie and Chase Daugherty added 12 and 10 points, respectively.

Chism paced the Pirates with 13 points, as Vaughn Larsen chipped in with 11 points.

Lovejoy 67, New Athens 47

In the other quarterfinal, Lovejoy knocked off New Athens 67-47.

Cameron Wallace led the Wildcats with 33 points, as Khari Jackson added 12 points.

Ethan Cockrell paced the Yellow Jackets with 22 points, as Justin Ruff chipped in with 12 points.

Lovejoy will take on Lebanon in the semifinals Wednesday night.

This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 9:22 PM with the headline "Meteors fly by Pirates in Lebanon Regional."