And in beating Ft. Zumwalt West 52-36, the Lady Chiefs ended on a winning note for head coach Stephanie Phillips, who's battling stage four cancer.

Her return to the team in the future is uncertain at this point, and according to Phillips, "the only thing I know right now is that I start chemo on Monday. I'm going to be doing it once a week for as long as I can take it. But I'm going to continue to battle. I plan on winning this too. You can hide and watch."

At least on this day, there were no tears like there was after the semifinal loss to Blue Springs. In the consolation game Kickapoo trailed Ft. Zumwalt West 28-23 in the 2nd half before going on a 12-0 run over the final 5:37 of the period to take command of the game. Casey Carroll led the Lady Chief attack with 20 points as they finish the year 25-6.

Springfield's other public school entry, the Hillcrest boys, play for the Class 5 championship Saturday at 8:05 p.m. against Oakville.

In Class 4, the Webb City girls advanced to the championship Saturday at 2:50 p.m. against Cape Girardeau Notre Dame after beating Kansas City O'Hara 55-42. The Cardinals finished second at state last year and have never won a state title.

In the Class 4 boys semifinals, Republic could not size-up with second ranked Kearney, fallilng to the taller Bulldogs 43-31.

While Republic had no player taller than 6 ft. 4 inches, Kearney had four players taller including their big 6-9 center Dillon Starzl, who had 16 points as the Bulldogs scored 11 of the game's first 13 points and led 24-9 at the half.

"You won't win many games scoring nine points a half," remarked Republic head coach Gary Stanfield. "And while you can't get taller in the weight room, we do need to get stronger and more physical because in the playoffs, that's how the game is played."

20-9 Republic will take on St. Louis Soldan in the Class 4 boys third place game Saturday at 1:10 p.m.