Ironton, Mo. (KFMO) - The Lesterville Bearcats are moving on to the Arcadia Valley Thanksgiving Tournament semifinals after defeating the hosts Tuesday night.
Lesterville, the #5 seed, became the first lower seed to defeat its higher-ranked opponent, in this case, the #4 seed Arcadia Valley. After falling behind early, the Bearcats took a slim lead that eventually grew to 8, 32-24, by halftime. The Tigers struggled to score after the break, allowing Lesterville to slowly pull away, eventually picking up a 22-point win, 62-40.
Tyson Boyer led all Bearcat scorers with 19. Kaiden Keith led the Tigers with 13.
In our second game of the evening, the Arcadia Valley Lady Tigers took on the Bismarck Lady Indians in an early-season conference game. Arcadia Valley (2-0) used an aggressive defense early to force Bismarck (1-1) into several turnovers, building a double-digit 36-21 lead at the half. Bismarck was able to stablize their game a fair bit starting midway through the 3rd, however, it was too little too late, as they would only be able to get back to 8 points, eventually dropping the contest 64-56.
Arcadia Valley sophomore Braelyn Turnbough finished with 24 points. Bismarck senior Ashley Hawkins also had 24.
Tonight is the semi-finals of the AV Thanksgiving Tournament, featuring #1 seed South Iron taking on Lesterville, and #2 seed West County taking on #3 seed Fredericktown. We'll have coverage starting at 6PM on AM1240, KFMO.