Stars win and move to the Championship Game

WASHINGTON, MO. • At a mere 5-foot-4, McCluer North sophomore guard Mekai Ray knows his role.

"I've got to be fast and I've got to shoot the ball well," Ray said.

The mighty-mite did both on Friday night.

Ray scored 13 points and triggered a first-quarter spurt that helped the Stars to a 59-47 win over St. Louis Christian in the semifinal round of the 64th annual Borgia Turkey Tournament at Borgia High.

McCluer North (2-0) will face Cardinal Ritter (2-0) in the title game of the eight-team affair at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

The Stars beat Ritter 69-60 for the Gold Division crown last season.

Ray hit four successive shots in the opening period and scored 10 points to stake his team to a 25-9 lead it would never relinquish.

Senior guard Keion McGuire, Ray's running mate in the backcourt, also scored 13 points. Cameron Lockett added 10 points and senior Jacoby Jones chipped in with eight.

The Stars used their speed and quickness to roll past the taller Cougars, who sported a front-line of three players 6-5 or above.

"From the very beginning, we wanted to get after it and play with a lot of energy," North coach Trevor Laney said. "We wanted to play fast and move the ball before the defense could get set.

"It worked in that first quarter."

North parlayed the marksmenship of Ray and McGuire to an 18-point cushion in the opening quarter. McGuire added six first-period points.

Ray's ability to keep the game at an up-tempo pace proved costly to the Cougars, who never got into a rhythm and were never able to use their size advantage.

"We're going to have to learn how to pick up our effort, especially in the first quarter," St. Louis Christian coach Casey Autenrieth said. They shot the heck out of the ball in the first quarter and that put us back on our heels a little bit."

The Stars kept the lead at a comfortable distance until the Cougars made a mini-run climbing to within 48-39 late in the third quarter.

Charles Rahming, who led St. Louis Christian with nine points, keyed the late spurt. But McGuire converted an old-fashioned 3-point play and Jones followed in his own miss to shift the momentum back to the Stars.

"The kids are executing, they're running the plays," Laney said. "Our position defense is OK. For the most part, they did the things they had to do to win the game."