ST. JOHN 53, SPEARVILLE 43 — St. John sparkplug Mia Meyer scored 23 points and ignited the Tigers' rally from an 8-point deficit with a trio of momentum-changing 3-pointers for  53-43 substrate championship that clinched a spot in the 1A Division 1 state basketball tournament.

St. John's 6-foot-2 Lydia Reed dominated inside with several blocks, including a pair of volleyball spikes on Spearville shots. Reed scored 14 points and dominated the rebounding. The Tigers (17-5) committed 18 first-half turnovers, but led 23-21 at halftime thanks to to four 3-pointers. Meyer made a pair and Jalyn Fisher and Karly Rockenbach converted 3-pointers.

St. John's aggressive defense forced 23 Spearville turnovers and kept the Tigers within range until the offense got rolling. The Tigers beat Spearville for the second consecutive year to qualify for the 1A state tournament at Dodge City.

Spearville's Faith Ackerman scored 12 points and Cheyenne Ackerman added 10 points. Spearville made 19 of 59 field goals against solid Tiger defense.

Spearville 13 8 12 10 — 43

St. John 5 18 14 16 — 53

SPEARVILLE (16-7) (FG 3 FT TP)—Faith Ackerman 5-14 (2-8) 0-1 12, Cheyenne Ackerman 4-11 (0-1) 2-4 10, McGee 2-7 0-0 4, Huston 1-9 (0-3) 0-2 2, Preisner 2-7 (1-2) 0-0 5, Kliesen 4-9 (0-1) 0-2 8, Correll 1-2 0-0 2, Totals 19-59 (3-15) 2-9 43

ST. JOHN (17-5) (FG 3 FT TP)—Meyer 8-18 (3-9) 4-5 23, Reed 6-10 2-6 14, Averi Fisher 0-0 2-2, Rockenbach (1-1) 0-0 3, Jalyn Fisher 1-7 (1-4) 1-2 4, Bright 1-3 0-2 2, Brummer 0-0 1-2, Bonner 2-6 0-0 4, Totals 19-45 (5-16) 10-19 53