After taking third place in last year’s First State Community Bank Holiday Classic, the Jackson girls basketball team reached the championship game for the first time since 2020 last week at the Show Me Center.
The No. 3 seeded Indians (6-3) handed Class 1 Delta (7-1) its first loss of the season by a score of 57-48 in order to reach the Holiday Classic title game. The Bobcats handed Jackson a 68-53 loss in last year’s tournament.
However, the Indians had not one but three players score double digits against Delta this time around as 5-foot-10 senior guard Katie Waller led the way with a game-high 17 points with three 3-pointers. Jackson 5-7 guard Camryn Alsdorf paced Waller with 16 points of her own and hit two 3s.
The final Indian to eclipse 10 points was 5-11 senior post Aubrey Brothers as she put up 14 in her team’s win over the Bobcats. Brothers scored six points from the free-throw line off nine attempts, while Alsdorf went 10-for-11 and Waller was 4-for-7 at the charity stripe.
In a 46-30 loss in the Holiday Classic Championship game to Notre Dame (7-0), though, Waller was the only player for Jackson to score 10 points or more with 14. Brothers managed to produce four points, while Alsdorf was held scoreless.
The Indians second-leading scorer was 5-7 junior point guard Holland Guilliams as she had six points in the second quarter. This allowed Jackson to take a 20-19 lead over the Bulldogs heading into halftime.
Notre Dame outscored the Indians 16-6 in the third quarter and didn’t look back for a 16-point win over Jackson. The Bulldogs had also previously beaten the Indians 40-30 for the SEMO Conference Championship Dec. 2.
Both Alsdorf and Waller were selected to the FSCB Holiday Classic All-Tournament Team as this was the second and final time Katie was named to the team.
