Wildcats Win, Lady Wildcats Lose In Big Night Of Varsity Basketball Against Pattonville

The boys and girls varsity basketball teams played a pair of highly competitive games against Suburban North Conference rival Friday night.

The Wildcat boys hosted Pattonville at the Wildcat gymnasium, while the Lady Wildcat girls visited Pattonville High for Senior Night, in a pair of ballgames featuring teams trying to stay near the top of the Suburban North standings with just one week left in the regular season.

In the boys game, Hazelwood West used a dominant defensive effort in the fourth quarter to secure a 56-44 win. While the Pattonville girls did the same thing, dominating the fourth quarter, to earn a decisive 68-57 win over the Lady Wildcats.

The boys game was a tense battle that Pattonville led until the late stages of the third quarter. The Pirates, who came into the game having lost four of their last five contests, led Hazelwood West 37-34.

But West star Darris Smith, who finished with a game-high 16 points, decided it was time to take over, and did so with two brilliant plays in a row that give his team the lead.

First, with his team scrambling to find an open shot against the stifling Pattonville defense, Smith spun away from two defenders and launched a 22-foot three-pointer that bombed home to tie the score.

Then after a Pattonville turnover with five seconds left in the quarter, the 6’2 senior raced the length of the court and flipped in a teardrop layup that made the score 39-37, and gave the Wildcats the lead for good.

Hazelwood West scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter, and held Pattonville without a point for the first five minutes of the final stanza, before a Pirate junior Shawn Collins hit a three with three minutes left that made the score 47-40.

But that was as close as Pattonville would get, as Hazelwood West pushed its lead to as many as 14 points, and held the Pirates to just two garbage time buckets the rest of the way in securing its 15th win of the season.

The girls game was also a tight battle late in the third quarter. A free throw by West’s Shakaunna Oliver-Futrell made the score 41-40 Pattonville with 2:31 left.

But Pattonville scored eight straight points to close the third, and led 49-40 at the start of the fourth.

West junior Mia Williams opened the fourth quarter with a three-pointer that brought the Lady Wildcats to within 49-43, but Pattonville senior Ellicia Clark answered with back-to-back threes of her own that gave the Lady Pirates a 55-44 lead they would not relinquish.

West’s Oliver-Futrell finished with 19 points to lead all scorers, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Pattonville’s four double-digit scorers, Mikala McGhee (16), Christian Johnson (15), Paris Williams (14), and Clark (11).

For the season, the Wildcat boys improved to 15-6 overall record and 4-2 in Suburban North Conference play, while the Lady Wildcat girls fell to 11-8 overall and 2-4 in league play.

Both West teams will be quite busy during the final week of the regular season, with four games apiece left before the start of the state playoffs on Feb. 21.

The Wildcat boys final four games include home contests against Soldan and St. Charles, on Saturday and Monday, and road games at Parkway Central and McCluer, on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Lady Wildcat girls will close the regular season with road games at Eureka and Wentzville Holt, on Saturday and Tuesday, and home games against Parkway Central and McCluer on Wednesday and Thursday.