Community R-6

Community R-6 girls earn second straight third-place trophy in New Franklin

Posted 1/16/25

It came down to the final minute for the Community R-6 girls on Saturday.

The Lady Trojans held off Fayette (4-5) 52-49 to win the New Franklin tournament third-place game for the second …

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Community R-6

Community R-6 girls earn second straight third-place trophy in New Franklin

Posted

It came down to the final minute for the Community R-6 girls on Saturday.

The Lady Trojans held off Fayette (4-5) 52-49 to win the New Franklin tournament third-place game for the second straight year. Peyton Beamer knocked down a 3-pointer with less than 10 seconds left to win the game for Community (10-3) and finished with 21 points, five 3-pointers and five assists. 

“She had such a great game and had the hot hand,” head coach Bob Curtis said. “We wanted to run an out of bounds play to get her an open look. The girls executed perfectly and got her a wing three to win it.”

Aaliyah Welch followed Beamer with 19 points and was 7-for-10 at the free-throw line to help Community defeat a team that played in the tournament championship game last season after eliminating the Lady Trojans in a 66-57 overtime game. Community hit nine 3-pointers and was 10-for-16 at the free throw line for the team’s “best win to date.”

“We knew the year before they used their deep bench in overtime to finish us off when we were very drained physically,” Curtis said. “We needed to win in regulation as Aaliyah, who played great, had fouled out in the final minutes of the contest.”

The Lady Trojans started last week with a 36-27 victory over Central Activities Conference foe Sturgeon (4-6) after about three weeks without a game. Following a Christmas break that was prolonged by tournament postponements early in the week that forced first-round games to be played last Wednesday, Community beat the team it previously played before the break. The Lady Trojans couldn’t quite hold Sturgeon below 30 points in a 41-31 overtime win but made the Lady Bulldogs the seventh team Community held below 30 points.

Our control of the game clock, hitting the boards hard on both ends, and basketball IQ has led to this great start,” Curtis said. “We understand that limiting possessions and making teams play defense longer is leading to higher percentage shots which is an area we needed to improve in during the second half of our season.”

Community led Sturgeon by 13 points with four minutes left in the game and was lifted by a gritty performance from Welch. She had to come out in the first quarter due to a cut over her eye but returned in the middle of the second quarter and eventually finished with 11 points, six rebounds and four assists. 

Jocelyn Curtis followed Welch with eight points and seven rebounds, and Beamer had six points and four assists.

The Lady Trojans did lose 50-29 to eventual runner-up and host New Franklin (10-2) on Thursday mainly due to the performance from Lily Chitwood.

“New Franklin has one of the best players in central Missouri in Lily Chitwood,” Curtis said. “We threw everything we could at her. New Franklin is going to make some noise in conference play and district play in February as they have really improved from this time a year ago.”

Curtis said Community forced New Franklin to play its tempo more often in the first half but then the Lady Bulldogs forced turnovers for easy layups to put the game away in the second half. The Lady Trojans trailed 26-16 at halftime.

Community (3-0 CAC) plays at New Franklin (2-0 CAC) at 6 p.m. Friday.


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