11th Annual Southwest Girls Holiday Tournament starts Friday BY KYLE TROUTMAN
ktroutman@cassville-democrat.com The Southwest, Cassville and Wheaton girls basketball teams will play a trio of games over the holiday break, as all three will participate in the 11th Annual Southwest Girls Holiday Tournament.
Action begins on Friday, with No. 5 Southwest taking on No. 4 East Newton at 11:30 a.m. No. 2 Cassville then faces No. 7 Billings at 1 p.m., and No. 6 Wheaton faces No. 3 Gentry (Ark.) at 2:30 p.m. The No. 1 seed, Commerce (Okla.), received a bye in the first round of the seven-team tournament.
The top seed will meet the East Newton-Southwest winner in a semifinal on Saturday at 1 p.m., and the Cassville-Billings and Gentry-Wheaton winners will play at 2:30 p.m. in the other semifinal.
The championship game is on Monday at 5:30 p.m.
Cassville took third place in the 2023 edition of the tournament, defeating Billings, 49-31. Southwest was sixth last year, winning its first game of the 2023-2024 season in the process. Wheaton finished eighth with a one-possession loss to McAuley Catholic in the seventh- place game.
Shawn Johnson, Southwest girls basketball coach in his first year, said the Lady Trojans have already surpassed last year’s win total, and they are excited to compete in a tournament with a home crowd..
“They are really excited,” he said. “Last year was a struggle with few players and few wins. They are excited to see where they can be in this tournament, especially how they can compete with the upper-echelon teams.”
Johnson said to find success, the focus for the team is steady, consistent improvement.
“We’re focused on competing and getting better throughout the year,” he said. “The girls want to win a trophy, whether that’s first through third, or even consolation. That’s what we’re looking at.
“If we win in one game and go right [on the bracket], we can compete with the one-seed and see where we end up. But, we have to get past the first team first.”
Clayton Bagby, Cassville girls basketball coach, said the Lady Wildcats are working to familiarize themselves with their opponents this week.
“I haven’t seen film of Billings yet,” he said on Thursday. “They have struggled early in the season, so hopefully we can take cares of that first round game. We just played Wheaton, and Gentry is still a pretty solid team but is going through a roster overhaul.
“Commerce is the No. 1 seed and everyone came back for them. We lost to them by 1 point in the semifinal last year. But, we feel we’re better, and they are better, so we expect to compete n every game and play for a championship.”
Bagby said to find success, Cassville has a few pieces of its game that need tweaking.
“The biggest thing is we are coming up short in rebounds,” he said. “There’s only been one game in seven where we’ve won the rebound battle. After
What: 11th Annual Southwest Girls Holiday Tournament Who: Southwest, Cassville, Wheaton More: 7-team tournament runs Friday, Saturday, Monday that, turnover have been an issue in the past, but we have cut out 6 per game this year compared to last season; so, we need to make sure we still take care of the ball. We also get good shot opportunities, but we need to put them in, especially around the basket.”
Jessica Dermott, Wheaton girls basketball coach, said the Lady Bulldogs are a young squad with ample opportunity.
“[Our goal is to] continue to get better at the little things,” she said. “We start five sophomores, so there’s a lot of room for continued growth. Working hard on getting defense stops and learning to execute on offense [will be the keys].”
