Grain Valley girls beat Blue Springs South

1/30/2025

by Bill Althaus

The Grain Valley High School girls basketball team ran off to a 16-2 lead against Blue Springs South in a Wednesday night Grain Valley Invitational semifinal game.

The Eagles closed with a 17-3 advantage and finished with a 47-28 victory that displayed opportunistic scoring and solid defense by the winners.

The Eagles will take a 15-1 record into Friday's 7 p.m. championship with an opponent yet to be determined.

Two young ladies who made an impact in the game - along with usual suspects like Madison Rust (12 points), Addy Seyfert (10) and Cam Kelly (6) - were sophomore guard Bella Bollinger and junior guard/forward Aspen Reed, who did all the little things that result in big wins.

Bollinger was part of the 16-point first quarter as she scored four of her six points and Reed scored six consecutive points in the fourth quarter on two layups and two free throws, to give the Eagles a 39-25 lead with 4:04 left in the game.

"Bella and Aspen have improved every game this season," coach Randy Draper said after his team improved to 15-1.

"They have made some great strides this season, and have earned their spots in the starting lineup. And tonight was a game with a lot of different games - we played really well in the first and fourth quarters and our defense kept us in the game the second and third quarters.

"There are a lot of areas where we can improve, but we're happy with the win. At this point of the season, you'll take a win any way you can get it."

Seyfert, who leads the Eagles in scoring, scored seven of her 10 points in the first quarter.

Blue Springs South's outstanding senior guard Eva Uhrmacher scored the lone Jaguars' bucket with a buzzer-beating jump shot as the quarter came to an end.

"We need to find a way to win," Uhrmacher said, after South fell to 4-13. "We play hard, I love the girls on our team, but we need to play strong for four quarters and we didn't do that tonight."

Uhrmacher added eight points in the second quarter as the Eagles went into the halftime locker room with a 24-14 lead.

"Grain Valley didn't do anything different than they did last week when we played them," Jaguars coach Kory Lower said. "We just couldn't score, and when we kept them from scoring, we played them close (leading the Eagles 18-14 in the second and third quarters).

The Jaguars went through a streak where they missed six layups.

"They're a great team, and they proved why they are a great tonight," the coach added. "Their big scorers put some points up, but this was a team win for Randy's kids. Everyone contributed."

Bollinger and Reed sported ear-to-ear grins after the semifinal victory.

"Playing as a team leads to success," Bollinger said. "We've seen our confidence grow all season. And we didn't play that well in the second and third quarters but we got off to the big lead early and kept them from scoring at the end of the game."

Reed added, "I loved how we came out and got that (16-2) lead. We need to find a way to keep going offensively when we have a lead like that. Even though we had the lead in the first quarter, our defense played a big role in our win. And I know everyone is talking about it, but we play so well as a team.

"No one cares about their personal statistics, we just want to win."