Park Hills Central uses second-half surge to beat Owensville in Missouri Class 4 girls basketball semifinals

Allyssa O'Connor has 10 points, 18 rebounds and seven assists

COLUMBIA, MISSOURI – The Park Hills Central girls basketball team bounced back from its semifinal loss a year ago to beat Owensville 44-30 and clinch a spot in the Class 4 championship game on Thursday night.

"It fueled us a lot," Central junior guard Allyssa O'Connor said of last year's semifinal loss. "We knew that we only had one senior last year so we were only losing one and we were bringing four out of the five starters back. We knew we could make it here again. We just had to work hard in the offseason and during the season and I'm super proud of my team."

"It feels amazing," Rebels senior guard Khloe Dischbein said. "It kind of lit a fire under our butts last year. We were up and then ended up losing. We didn't really expect that. ... I think we just wanted to get back to where we were and then do better."

Allyssa O'Connor, Dischbein and junior guard Taylor O'Connor each scored 10 points for Central (27-4). Allyssa O'Connor, who scored her 1,000th career point in the fourth quarter, grabbed 18 rebounds and dished out seven assists.

The Rebels advance to face either Chillicothe (27-1) or Lift for Life (26-3) in the Missouri Class 4 championship game at 8 p.m. Thursday. 

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Owensville (22-8) led 13-12 after one quarter and then 16-15 at halftime after both teams scored three points in the second quarter. Camryn Caldwell scored six points in the first half for Owensville, while Alison Daniels added five.

Allyssa O'Connor led Central with four points and seven rebounds in the first half.

Park Hills Central exploded for 16 points in the third quarter after scoring just 15 in the first half.

Owensville, which was led by 11 points from junior guard Alison Daniels, went cold after scoring 13 points in the opening quarter. The Dutchgirls made just two of 21 field goal attempts combined in the third and fourth quarters.

"I saw a defensive battle out there," Owensville coach John VanLeer said. "I thought we defended really well. We struggled to score a little bit. I look at the stat sheet and we got out-rebounded pretty bad and that was a big difference in the game. That was one of our keys going in, that we wanted to win the rebounding battle. Then the big one that sticks out with me is we got outscored 18-4 in the paint. We missed some easy ones early in the game and I feel like we could have been up eight or 10. We felt good at halftime. ... We lost to a good team."

Missouri Class 4 girls basketball semifinal: Park Hills Central - Owensville

Photos by Nate Latsch

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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz