Republished from the Jefferson City News Tribune

Shortly after the Calvary Lutheran and Lutheran: Kansas City girls basketball teams jostled for third place in the Calvary Lutheran Tournament in Jefferson City, Lady Knight sophomore Mackenzie Klatt sank 12 treys to win the tournament’s 3-point contest.

The sight was a familiar one for the Lady Lions.

Klatt made three of Lutheran: Kansas City’s 10 first-half 3s as the Lady Knights rolled to a 54-38 defeat of Calvary Lutheran on Saturday.

In addition to Klatt, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Hope Kunkel, Haley Reifsteck, Joelle Hick and Sarah Steensma drained 3-pointers for the Lady Knights in the first half.

“I’ve never seen that before,” Calvary Lutheran coach Jonathan Kueck said. “Six different girls who can shoot. I’ve never played a team with that many shooters.”

All but seven of the Lady Knights’ 37 first-half shots came from behind the arc.

“We knew that it would be tough to guard 3s in the zone, so we switched over to man-to-man defense,” Kueck said, “but we just weren’t able to fight through the screens.”

The Lady Knights missed each of their eight second-half 3-point attempts but were still able to build a 27-point lead by the end of the third quarter.

Kunkel led the Lady Knights with 15 points. Klatt finished with 11, and eight points scored for the Lutheran: Kansas City.

“They had a deeper bench,” Kueck said.

Turnovers were an issue for both teams; Calvary Lutheran had 29, and Lutheran: Kansas City had 21. The Lady Lions forced 10 takeaways in the fourth quarter alone and outscored the Lady Knights 13-2.

Becca Thompson led the Lady Lions with 12 points, and Sam Gunn had eight rebounds.

Earlier in the day, Calvary Lutheran fell to Metro East Lutheran, 51-29, to miss a shot at the championship game.

“We clawed back, but we couldn’t fight through the pressure,” Kueck said.

Kueck was happy with his team’s fourth-place performance in its home tournament. Even in the losses, he saw some positive signs.

“When we’re doing the things we worked on in practice, things go all right,” he said.

The Lady Lions (4-8) play 6 p.m. Tuesday at Bunceton.

Original: http://www.newstribune.com/news/2015/jan/11/calvary-girls-fall-54-38/