CeCe Harris' nose for the basket helps MICDS advance to final of its own tournament

That was never more evident than Friday night’s Don Maurer Holiday Invitational girls basketball semifinal when Harris got to the free throw line 14 times, making 12 of them, in the host Rams’ 52-42 win over Kirkwood at McDonnell Gymnasium.

“I’ve always just been a player that’s gonna attack downhill when I can,” Harris said. “The lane was there today, and I just made the most of it. They reached in on a lot of stuff and credit goes to my teammates who were cutting through and clearing out the lane for me.”

The 5-foot-7 senior point guard led MICDS in free throw attempts as a sophomore, had well over 100 trips to the charity stripe last season and leads the Rams in that department again this season.

“We thought if we could get a little penetration on them that might create some contact,” MICDS coach Scott Small said. “Whatever the kid eats for breakfast, I think we should all try doing the same thing. The kid’s just nails.”

Harris’ ability to get to the paint and draw shooting fouls is not lost on opposing coaches either.

“We tried to faceguard her, and we couldn’t even do that,” Kirkwood coach Monica Tritz said. “I feel like she’s been here for 10 years. She’s a great little player. She always works hard. She’s fun to watch.”

Rams to play for title

Third-seeded MICDS (7-0) is back in the final of its own tournament for the first time since winning it in 2021.

“That was definitely one of our goals. The past two years, we’ve been playing for a consolation title,” Harris said. “We, as a group, talked about what we wanted to accomplish this year and winning this tournament was one thing that was definitely first.”

The Rams will take on No. 1 seed and two-time defending tourney champion Fort Zumwalt West (7-1) for the championship at 6 p.m. Monday.

“The year’s young, but we’ve talked about what we want to do at the end of the season, and these are just steppingstones to that,” Small said. “Getting to play great competition gets us there, hopefully.”

Kirkwood hangs tough

After upsetting No. 2 seed Collinsville in the opening round, No. 7 seed Kirkwood (4-5) looked as though it would be up for another upset Friday.

The Pioneers led the Rams after one quarter, trailed by two points at halftime and were down just one in the first minute of the third quarter, but a 24-9 run from that first minute of the third to the middle of the fourth helped MICDS put the game out of reach.

“I thought we hung with them for the first three quarters. I was really proud of our effort,” Tritz said. “But Scott always does a great job with his team. He’s got them really prepared and his press gave us fits tonight.”

The old and the young

A four-year varsity player, Harris is one of the veteran seniors for Small’s squad.

Harris is one of three seniors, along with fellow co-captains Jaila Haywood and Lilly Loeb. Harris and Loeb are starters, as are a trio of freshmen that includes Harris’ younger sister, Lily.

“It’s something I knew was gonna happen this year,” CeCe Harris said. “We knew we were gonna have a lot of freshmen coming in, and they’ve come in with the mindset that they just want to learn and get better. There’s no entitlement so that’s made it real easy for me to do my job as a captain.”

That young crop also includes one of the country’s top freshmen in Jordyn Haywood, who came in averaging 22 points a contest.

Haywood has not known a single-digit scoring output yet on the high school level. Her 16 points Friday actually matched a season-low with her other five totals all checking in at 21 points of higher.

Haywood got off to a slow start in the semifinal with just four first-half points, but she had a hot third quarter with nine points.

“She drew a ton of attention. She played through a ton of contact,” Small said. “But she’s just nonplussed. She just plays through anything. She’s done a lot of special things.”

Kirkwood’s hot hands

As they have been most of this season, the Pioneers were led on offense Friday by junior Brooke Rose (22 points) and sophomore Livie Losse (13 points), who combined for 35 of Kirkwood’s 42 points.

“We’re looking to hopefully get more people a little bit more offensive-minded,” Tritz said. “Because we’re kind of struggling with that right now.”