BROSELEY -- After an incredible first half, Twin Rivers' Katelyn South is closing fast on second place on Twin Rivers' all-time career scoring list.
South scored 25 points in the first half and 31 total as the Royals comfortably beat Puxico 68-34 in a late addition to the schedule Feb. 13.
South is now a point shy of 1,600 for her career and is 33 points from Tori Cole, who graduated in 2013. Amanda Lance is first on the list with 2,563 points.
Puxico (15-9) scored the opening points in the matchup and then the Royals (15-8) went on a 21-1 run.
"If we come out and don't hit shots we then have a tendency to struggle with defense. We didn't hit shots and then we struggled with defense and the it was a snowball all the way to the end of the game," Puxico coach Jordan Hill said.
South had eight points along the way and got them in a variety of ways; second-chance points, points off turnovers, free throws and buckets within the offense. The one thing she didn't do is make a 3. But she made three 3s within three minutes in the second quarter and the Lady Royals led 49-17 at halftime.
"We got her up at the top of the press. She started the game with a lot of energy. She's long armed, is up in the passing lanes, (Catey) Hester is doing the same thing. She was getting some layups off some steals," Twin Rivers coach Kelly Westerfield said.
Puxico tried a box-and-1 to slow South down.
"We've seen it all year," Westerfield said. "Last night (in a loss to Alton), we just had a really bad feeling after the game about some of our mental mistakes and our frame of mind. We just tried to refocus today and make sure, at this point forward, that we don't have any regrets."
South added six points in the third before a scoreless, running clock fourth quarter where the Lady Royals had five points as a team.
"She is solid offensively. We tried to get hands in her face and it didn't really do much. We didn't have any answer for her," Hill said of South.
South finished with seven steals, three assists and three rebounds, as well.
Katie Baxter added 11 points and six rebounds for Twin Rivers.
Puxico's Faith Oliver had 11 points.
The addition to the schedule was Twin Rivers' final game of the regular season and served as a bit of a bounce back for the Royals after losing to Neelyville in the Ozark Foothills Conference Tournament championship on Friday, and then to Alton on Monday.
"This team probably lacks in the communication area, they are all pretty good at keeping some feelings in and just trying to work hard," Westerfield said. "Sometimes you just have to let some of that out and today they kind of let out some of their frustrations. They don't have any frustrations with each other, it is just their own things they are going through. I think it lifted a little bit of a burden off of them. We had an overall team feeling tonight."
Puxico, the top seed and defending Class 2 District 1 champion, wanted to challenge itself before the postseason starts on Saturday. The Indians have won six of seven and five of those wins have been by at least 19 points. Their only close games in the past month have been a 67-58 loss to Van Buren and a 63-59 win over Naylor.
"They realized they may not be exactly where they wanted to be," Hill said. "We knew this was going to be a tough game for us, granted we wanted to come over here and play better than what we did."