Allie Turner leads John Burroughs past Lutheran St. Charles in Missouri Class 5 girls basketball championship game

Gonzaga signee Allie Turner scores game-high 24 points

COLUMBIA, MISSOURI – Last year's heartbreaking finish fueled the John Burroughs girls basketball team's quest for another state championship.

Coming off winning the Missouri Class 4 championship a year earlier, the Bombers had hopes of winning another state title but lost to Cape Notre Dame in the Class 5 quarterfinals. 

Falling one game short of returning to the final four fueled Allie Turner and her John Burroughs teammates and it showed on Thursday in an impressive 57-41 win over reigning champion Lutheran St. Charles in the Missouri Class 5 title game at Mizzou Arena.

"We all wanted to get back to where we are right now and we all thought we could do that and we should've done and we lost," said senior guard Allie Turner, who scored a game-high 24 points. "So it was really tough. But I think that a big reason we won this year is because we lost last year – so we knew what that felt like and didn't want that to happen again."

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Turner, a 5-foot-8 point guard headed to Gonzaga, led the Bombers' strong start with eight points in the first quarter and 15 in the first half on her way to finishing with a game-high 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting, including three 3-pointers.

BreAunna Ward added 10 points for Burroughs (29-3), which won the Class 4 championship two years ago. Alice Crowley scored eight points and Moriyah Douglass added seven.

"These seniors did not want to go out without another state title," Burroughs coach Jacob Yorg said. "These players around them were not going to let these seniors have their last game go without a state title. I will ride or die with them any day of the week – I will take them over anybody else in this state, any day of the week – because they are authentically themselves. That's what makes them special, because you never know who is going to step up cause someone is always going to step up."

Jordan Speiser led Lutheran St. Charles (26-5) with 15 points and a game high 13 rebounds.

"They jumped on us early," Lutheran coach Erin Luttschwager said. "That's something that we usually do to teams. We haven't had that done to us a lot this season, but they were making a lot of shots – just getting extra possessions and they were making plays. We struggled in the beginning, had a few too many turnovers to start the game, just didn't get in a rhythm early enough in the game. I was proud of our fight."

Missouri Class 5 girls basketball championship: John Burroughs - Lutheran St. Charles

Photos by David Smith

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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz