The Marion County Girls and LaPlata Boys move on to Sectional play Tuesday at Brookfield.

Thursday night at the LaPlata basketball district site featured number 1 seed Marion County playing 2nd seed Madison for the girls' championship. Marion County downed Madison by a score of 64-35 to advance to Tuesday's sectional game at Brookfield.

On Friday night, 1st seed Brashear squared off with 2nd seed LaPlata. The game was a see-saw battle through the 1st half with each team holding small leads. Brashear was ahead 10-9 after the 1st quarter and LaPlata led 21-17 at the half although at a price. Two of LaPlata's starters had already accumulated 3 fouls each by halftime. In the third quarter, LaPlata managed to "muscle up" their defense dramatically, holding Brashear to only 6 points while only sending the Tigers to the line a single time. During this time, LaPlata pulled out to a 37-23 lead going into the fourth quarter, avoiding what looked like might have been serious foul trouble. The Bulldogs played ball control in the 4th and despite being outscored 20-16 from the field during the 2nd half, went 19 for 22 from the charity stripe while Brashear was 3 for 5 from the line. The Bulldogs' 59-40 win advances them to sectional play at Brookfield Tuesday. For the Tigers, Kiley Watson led with 12 points, Matt Thomas had 9, Trae Treasure scored 6, Cody Snelling had 5, and Anthony Ambrosia and Ryan Ferdig each scored 4 points. Jordan Smith led a trio of Bulldogs in double figures with 18 points including a 14 for 14 performance from the free throw line, Taylor Wheeler had 17, Curtis Bunch added 12, Donnie Hanson and Birdie Buck had 4 each, and Christian Bunch and Hayden Fouch scored 2 points each. Uncharacteristically, LaPlata didn't score a single 3-pointer. Brashear finished their season with a record of 24-5 and finished 1st in the Novinger Tournament, the Brashear Tournament, and the Tri-County Conference.

A completed bracket is available at:

http://brashear.k12.mo.us/dept/SPORTS/2008-2009/DistHoop.htm