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Springfield girls basketball Class 6 districts preview: Schedule, top players, predictions

wyatt d. wheeler, springfield news-leader
·3 min read

The larger classes will begin high school basketball postseason play across southwest Missouri this week.

Classes 4-6 will tip off district play on Monday all across the area. We went through and provided the brackets, top teams, players to watch and predictions for each local district.

Check MSHSAA.org for the most accurate times and brackets throughout the postseason.

SPRINGFIELD AREA GIRLS BASKETBALL DISTRICT PREVIEWS: Class 4 | Class 5 | Class 6

SPRINGFIELD AREA BOYS BASKETBALL DISTRICT PREVIEWS: Class 4 | Class 5 | Class 6

Class 6

No. 1 team: Incarnate Word.

There's no question as to who the top team in the state is; Incarnate Word continues to be a special program that ranks among the top teams in the nation. This year's team features junior point guard Nevaeh Caffey who is pulling in major Power 5 attention and averaging over 13 points per game. Zoe Best is a senior guard signed with Southeast Missouri and she is joined by junior Peyton Hill who is receiving mid-major interest. Incarnate Word recently topped Strafford's record for the most consecutive wins by claiming its 124th to go down as one of the greatest dynasties in the state's history. No players on its current roster has ever lost a game.

District 5 at Glendale

Feb. 28

  • No. 1 Kickapoo vs. No. 8 Central

  • No. 4 Glendale vs. No. 5 Ozark

  • No. 2 Republic vs. No. 7 Willard

  • No. 3 Nixa vs. No. 6 Lebanon

March 1

  • 1/8 vs. 4/5

  • 2/7 vs. 3/6

March 4

  • Championship at 6 p.m.

Team to beat: Kickapoo. The Lady Chiefs have been among the top teams in the state all season. Their lone loss was by two to Battle in mid-December. Few have been better defensively than Kickapoo this season as it's allowed 37.5 points per game this season and it's only played in one game that's been within single digits during the calendar year. Kya Johnson has been a great senior leader as Mikayla Pilley and Josie Salazar have been among those who have established themselves as some of the best players in the area.

Next best: Republic. The job Kris Flood has done this season has been phenomenal considering he's coming off losing the best player in the school's history. This team has done nothing but get better as the season's gone on and it hasn't lost a game since falling to Class 2 No. 1 Skyline at the Pink and White Tournament at the end of 2023. Many different names have contributed in big ways to this team throughout the year including Misora Nambara, Lanney Strong, Alaina Norman, Lauren Chastain and others.

Sleeper: Glendale. It'd be difficult to find a better four-seed in the state than the Lady Falcons. They're a 20-win team for the second year in a row, have great wins over Republic and Strafford this year and were competitive against Kickapoo despite falling by 15 in the end. Avery Givens has been a great senior leader for the Lady Falcons and we've also seen the breakout of Mattie Zingg this season. We'll see if the Lady Falcons can give Kickapoo a challenge in a potential semifinal game.

Prediction: Kickapoo over Republic.

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield high school girls basketball Class 6 districts preview