The Perryville girls’ basketball team may have fallen to Saxony Lutheran in the opening round of the Class 5, District 1 Tournament on Saturday to end their season, but that doesn’t mean that the squad will finish the year without a championship.
Perryville defeated Hillsboro 50-44 on Thursday, Feb. 25 to claim the Jefferson County Athletic Association-Large School Division title.
The conference title is the second straight for the Perryville girls program.
“The girls worked hard for the conference title and they deserve it,” Perryville coach Angela Fulton said. “It was one of our goals this year.”
This season was a little different in the JCAA conference as the teams in the large school division played each other twice. In previous seasons the teams played each other just once.
Perryville swept De Soto, Hillsboro, Festus, and Windsor the first time around in mid-December and early January by an average of 14.5 points per game. Festus and De Soto handed Perryville a loss in the repeat matchups, each by the narrow margin of three points each. Perryville finished 12-10 on the season and 6-2 within the conference. The victory over Hillsboro was the third this season as they also beat the Hawks 68-31 on Dec. 29 as part of the West County Christmas Tournament.
“It’s tough to beat a team twice in one season, let alone three times,” Fulton said. “The girls went out and did it.”
