Oakville Unable to Catch Webster in Semifinals

Two of the area's best basketball teams squared off on Friday night in the semifinals of the 11th Annual Webster Classic at Webster Groves High School.

The night's first semifinal featured host Webster Groves playing Oakville. Webster used a hot-shooting first half to grab the lead and the Statesmen held on to beat the Tigers, 59-49. Webster Groves won the 2008 state championship and Oakville was a state finalist last season. Only one team has beaten Webster in its tournament in the past six years.

The teams arrived at the semifinal following substantially different contests the previous evening with Webster needing a last-second basket from senior James Kenner to win, while Oakville cruised past Miller Academy.

Webster will play in the championship game against Lee's Summit at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday while Oakville will play St. Louis University High in the third-place game at 3 p.m. Lee's Summit beat SLUH, 66-43, in Friday's nightcap.

Ahead of the contest with Oakville, Webster's Kenner acknowledged that the Statesmen were happy to be in the semifinals but needed to make some improvements in order to succeed against the Tigers.

"We're going to have to play defense much better tonight than we did last night," Kenner said.

Webster Head Coach Jay Blossom echoed the sentiment, "We have our work cut out for us tonight, they are a tough team and they have some good young players and we'll need to work hard to stay in this one."

Oakville may have been entering the game with some confidence, but Tigers Head Coach Nick Traxler remained conservative ahead of this early season game against a strong Webster team.

"We're going to try to improve and be better than we were yesterday. Webster is always tough, especially when playing them in their house. Tonight should be a good test for our young players," said Traxler.

Webster opened the contest with a 3-pointer by Kendall Shell in what would be the first of an onslaught of outside baskets by the Statesmen early in the game. The Tigers attempted to keep up with the Webster pace, but after Oakville senior Danny Zehner dropped a 3-point basket to tie the game at 10, Shell and Kenner immediately responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to put Webster up by 6.

The first quarter ended with Webster leading, 22-16, as Shell struck for a trio of 3-point baskets and added a field goal to pace the Statesmen.

Webster junior guard Rayshawn Simmons returned to the lineup after missing time with an ankle injury. Simmons indicated after the contest that he had been at about 85 percent during the game, but even so he added substantial depth to Webster's defense.

Shell's fourth 3-pointer of the game helped Webster build a 29-20 lead midway through the second quarter, but the game tightened in the final minutes of the half as Oakville senior Javier Duren went to the free-throw line and made both of his shots. With just under a minute to play in the half, Duren then hit a long-range field goal and the half ended with Webster up 31-27.

Duren opened up the second half with a field goal and then converted two free throws to tie the game 31-31. But that was as close as Oakville was able to get during the contest as Webster saw Shell and Kenner continue to lead the offense.

Duren finished with a game-high 23 points while Kenner and Shell had 19 for Webster.

Perhaps hoping to put the game out of reach, Blossom called a Webster timeout with one minute left in the third quarter and the plan seemed to work as Webster worked the ball immediately to Peter Fairbanks and the junior forward hit a 3-pointer to put the Statesmen up 47-35 as the final quarter approached.

A gutsy effort by Oakville's Joe Reynolds kept Tiger hopes alive in the fourth quarter. The 6-foot-1 senior went to the free-throw line following hard fouls and converted 3-of- 4 chances to make it 49-38 in favor of Webster. Zehner, who had 14 points on the night, also contributed in the final quarter with a field goal to pull the Tigers within 8.

But Oakville was unable to put together a significant run despite strong shooting from Duren and Zehner, and with 6-foot-8 freshman Austin Gillman out for most the game the Tigers attack lacked the multidimensional character it displayed the evening before.

Traxler acknowledged that his team played catch-up for most the contest, "We suffered from their barrage of 3-pointers in the first quarter."