Sports

Leaving Storm in Their Dust, CHS Lady Hornets Emphatically End 30-Years Wait

KANSAS CITY — Exhibiting both their basketball skills and physical and mental strength, Chillicothe High School’s amazing 2023-24 Lady Hornets basketball team last Friday night ended a 3-decades wait for their program.At mid-week this week, they took their crack at making history.Visiting south Kansas City’s Notre Dame de Sion girls’ high school and backed by a huge turnout of their own fans who filled probably three-fourths or more of the bleacher seats, the Lady Hornets not only won for a 20th-consecutive time and 27th time in 28 overall contests this season, but did so in runaway fashion after a tight first half.They rang up 37 of the last 51 points in the final 12:55 for a 62-38 Class 4 state-tournament quarterfinals triumph over the host Storm.“We talked (in the locker room during intermission) about how important the get-go was in the third quarter and I thought the girls took it and exploded with it,” marveled Darren Smith, 10th-year CHS head coach, in a post-game radio interview.“We made shots.

Read MoreLeaving Storm in Their Dust, CHS Lady Hornets Emphatically End 30-Years Wait

Girls Pursue CHS’ Second State Hoops Crown

Ten years after Darren Smith made the choice to leave his long-time post as head coach of nearby Meadville High School’s boys’ basketball team, which he had led to a Class 1 state-runnerup finish in the 2013-14 season and which would grab the 2014-15 state crown under his replacement, to assume the top job with Chillicothe’s girls’ program – inheriting young team with state-championship aspirations, the fifth CHS Lady Hornets squad he has guided into the state tournament at last sent him back to the state semifinals and finals this week.A tougher-than-it-looks 62-38 triumph at Kansas City: Notre Dame de Sion last Friday night qualified the 2023-24 Lady Hornets for the state semifinals and finals for the first time in 30 years.Taking a look at CHS’ situation from a historical perspective, if the Chillicothe team added two more wins this past Wednesday and Thursday to its sensational 27-1 record, it would mean CHS has a team state champion in any sport for the first time since the 1991 football Hornets, a state basketball champion for the first time in 43 years, and a girls’ state-title winner for the first time ever.An appearance in Thursday’s title contest would have been Chillicothe’s first in basketball since the 1997-98 Hornets lost the championship game to Washington: St.

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After 59 Wins in Row, Meadville Girls Stopped in State Basketball Quarterfinals

MEADVILLE — The matchup of which Meadville High School basketball Lady Eagles head coach Steve Carvajal had been wary since the first week of January came to pass last Friday night and demonstrated why it had been concerning.The Cairo Lady Bearcats, state participants on the Class 2 level each of the past two years and ousted from that tourney in the quarterfinals last year by eventual champion Tipton, used their superior depth to fight through apparently-significant, in-game injuries to two starters and out-duel the host Lady Eagles 71-58 in the 2023-24 Class 1 state tourney quarterfinals a week ago tonight.The outcome not only ended MHS’ previously-perfect season at 28-1, but also terminated its 59-games winning streak over the past two seasons.

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Basketball Hornets Survive Rough-and-Tumble District Opener, 59-48

Although unexpectedly-hot shooting by Cameron and other factors made it decidedly more-difficult than most expected, Chillicothe High School’s basketball Hornets extended their season and winning streak Tuesday night at home with a 59-48 verdict over the visiting Dragons in the quarterfinals of the Class 4 District 16 Tournament.“This was not an easy game,” confirms Tim Cool, Hornets head coach.

Read MoreBasketball Hornets Survive Rough-and-Tumble District Opener, 59-48