Defending state champion Ellington pulls away in second half to beat St. Paul Lutheran, advance to Class 2 state title game

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — The defending MSHSAA Class 2 state champion Ellington Whippets were determined to overcome a sluggish first half for a number of reasons.

After shooting 34.5% over the first two quarters, the Whippets started connecting more often from the field after halftime and rolled to a 65-51 win over St. Paul Lutheran (Concordia) in the semifinal round of the Show-Me Showdown on Friday at JQH Arena.

“First half, we really couldn’t get much going,” Ellington coach David Burrows said. “We … gave them a pretty hard speech (at halftime) about how bad they wanted it, how bad they wanted to win, how bad they want to play in the afternoon (Saturday) rather than 10 o’clock in the morning. … The second half was a lot different. It looked like our style of ball and the way we play.”

The Whippets (26-4) will face Wellington-Napoleon (27-2) in the championship game at 2 p.m. Saturday. St. Paul (23-7) will face Blue Eye (26-6) in the third-place game at 10 a.m. Saturday. Wellington-Napoleon beat Blue Eye 66-47 in Friday’s other semifinal.

“It’s unbelievable,” senior forward Gretchen Hackworth said of reaching the state championship game for a second-straight year. “The support from our community really helps us to want it more, especially the seniors. We know it’s our last chance. We’re going to give it all we’ve got.”

Hackworth is one of three seniors on the Ellington roster. Guard Laura Gore and center Abbi Harper are the others.

The Whippets received a boost from Gore, who made three 3-pointers in the third quarter. Behind 64.3% shooting in the third quarter, the Whippets outscored St. Paul 24-11 to take a 51-34 lead into the final quarter.

Gore finished with 16 points, going 4 for 11 from 3-point range after making 1 of 6 tries in the first two quarters.

Gore didn’t go into the second half thinking about making some big shots for her team.

“Absolutely nothing,” Gore said of what she was thinking going into the third quarter. “It’s better when I don’t think about my shot. That’s when I make mine.”

St. Paul Lutheran coach Eric Gramenz said the third quarter was the deciding factor in the game.

“I was proud of our girls for fighting tough today,” Gramenz said. “Give a lot of credit to Ellington. They really shot well, especially the (Kaylee) King girl. I thought we competed well, especially in that first half. Just seemed to run out of steam with Gore hitting those shots early (in the third). That was a real backbreaker.”

The Whippets’ second-half shooting was fueled by motivation and defense.

“They got after it and started feeding off of each other,” Burrows said. “If one of them can make a shot, they’re all going to start hitting, really feeding off of each other in everything they’re doing. Defensively, we like to get out in transition. We were able to get a couple stops (and) move the ball in transition. It really looked nice.”

The Saints committed seven turnovers in the third quarter, with two of them leading to layups for Ellington.

“After halftime, our defense finally picked up,” Ellington junior Kaylee King said. “They (the coaches) just told us we need to get more motivated, work harder. Know that on the defensive end, if we turn it up, that starts our offense.”

St. Paul outscored the Whippets 17-14 in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to 13 points with 1:24 to play.

With the third-place game looming, Gramenz liked the way his team finished despite trailing by as many as 22 points early in the fourth.

“I think that’s really important,” Gramenz said of the solid finish. “It shows a lot about our team. We’ve dealt with struggles this year. Our last two games getting here, we trailed at half. We trailed early in the first quarter, so I was proud of how we kept fighting. We could’ve given up. They could have got it to 30-35 very easily, but we kept fighting and trimmed the lead back a little bit.”

Senior Adrien Martens scored eight of her team-high 20 points in the final quarter. She finished with a double-double, grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds. Hailey Arnold added 12 points.

Ellington trailed only briefly at the start of the first quarter after Grace Hartwig scored on a feed inside for a 2-0 lead. King executed a steal and scored a layup to tie the score, but the Saints took the lead again on Martens’ drive to the basket.

King answered with the first of her seven 3-pointers to give the Whippets a 5-4 advantage, a lead they never relinquished.

Gore added another 3-pointer and King sank a pull-up jumper for a 10-4 lead.

Hartwig and Gore exchanged baskets before Arnold made two free throws to slice Ellington’s lead to 12-8 after one quarter.

The Saints committed six of their 23 turnovers in the first quarter with Ellington committing two of its seven.

King knocked down three 3-pointers in the second quarter, as Ellington increased its lead to 27-18 on the second of two baskets by Hackworth. However, JaeSi Hentges sank a 3 and Arnold drove the baseline for two points, slicing the lead to 27-23 at halftime.

Ellington 12 15 24 14 — 65

St. Paul Lutheran 8 15 11 17 — 51

ELLINGTON — Kaylee King 11-18 0-0 29, Laura Gore 6-14 0-0 16, Gretchen Hackworth 5-7 1-2 11, Dylan Price 3-17 2-2 9, Abbi Harper 0-0 0-0 0, Ella Morton 0-0 0-0 0, Sadie Lloyd 0-0 0-0 0, Abby Bass 0-0 0-0 0, Mickayla Campbell 0-0 0-0 0, Lylah Morton 0-0 0-0 0. FG 25-56 FT 3-4 F 15. 3-POINTERS (12-27): King 7-10, Gore 4-11, Price 1-6. REBOUNDS (19): Gore 8, Hackworth 5, Price 2, King. ASSISTS (15): Price 5, Gore 3, Hackworth 3, King 3, E. Morton. FOULED OUT: none.

ST. PAUL LUTHERAN — Adrien Martens 10-12 0-0 14, Hailey Arnold 3-7 5-6 12, JaeSi Hentges 2-9 0-2 6, Marissa Heins 1-5 3-4 5, Grace Hartwig 2-2 0-0 4, Morgan Anderson 0-0 2-2 2, Carly Fahrmeier 0-2 2-4 2, Marina Couto 0-0 0-0 0, Alex Frerking 0-0 0-0 0, Emily Heins 0-0 0-0 0, Ella Virus 0-0 0-0 0. FG 18-37 12-18 F 7. 3-POINTERS (3-14): Hentges 2-8, Arnold 1-4, Fahrmeier 0-2. REBOUNDS (33): Martens 14, M. Heins 7, Fahrmeier 6, Arnold 2. ASSISTS (8): Martens 3, M. Heins 2, Arnold, Fahrmeier, Hartwig. FOULED OUT: none.