In December the team played South Callaway (our biggest rival in Quiz Bowl) and both the JV and the Varsity team made amazing come-from-behind victories on the last question of the match to win.

On Tuesday, January 22, the Quiz Bowl team travelled to South Callaway for our 5th conference match of the year. The JV played a close match with several lead changes occurring throughout the match. However, the South Callaway JV team won 170 - 130. Sabria El-Kurbu led the team with 50 points and Zack Wehmeyer had 40 points.
The Varsity team jumped out to an early lead and then continued to dominate South Callaway for the rest of the match. Nici McCrary had her best match ever to lead the team with 100 points followed by Taylor Smith with 90 points. The Varsity team played its most complete game of the year with all starters making significant contributions. The final score was Hallsville 385 and South Callaway 230.

On Saturday, January 26, the freshman members of the Quiz Bowl team travelled to Marshall for an all-freshman Quiz Bowl tournament. This was an excellent opportunity for freshman from around the state to enter in a tournament and not be intimidated by the skill and experience of upper-classmen. Our 5 freshmen (Sabria El-Kurbu, Sarah Hamel, Zack Wehmeyer, Bobby Simms and Quenton Laroe) played 3 excellent teams during the morning elimination rounds. They advanced to the play-off round in the afternoon but were eliminated by a team from Helias. Overall, they were very competitive and gained valuable experience against quality teams from around the state.

On Tuesday January 30, the Quiz Bowl team played Harrisburg in our last home match of the year. The Varsity team started things off with a dominating performance. Five of the six varsity members contributed to the routing of Harrisburg 380 - 200, with Taylor Smith leading all scorers with 150 points. The Varsity team has locked up the conference championship with two matches left to play.
The Junior Varsity team played a much closer match but also prevailed 140-90 with Zach Wehmeyer leading all scorers with 60 points and Sabria El-Kurbu and Sarah Hamel each contributing 20 points.

On Saturday the Quiz Bowl team competed in the Rock Bridge Tournament. Twenty teams from around the state competed with each team playing three matches in the morning and then the top four teams in each division advancing to the semi-finals. Hallsville won all three of its morning matches against Marshall, Monroe City, and Warsaw. We advanced to the semi-finals as the #1 seed in the Gold Division. We played Monroe City again in the semi-finals and won. In the Finals we played Pilot Grove, a team that had the leading scorer for the tournament. We won that match and advanced to the championship game between the two divisions. In the championship game we played Hickman HS. Hallsville kept the match close and was mounting a comeback during the last quarter before Hickman closed the door by getting the last 5 questions in a row. Overall, it was an excellent tournament with our team finishing 5-1 and bringing home the second place trophy. Out of approximately 100 players, Taylor Smith was the 4th leading scorer for the tournament. Kelson Rosbach and Nici McCrary also put up some very large numbers but fell short of receiving individual medals. Sabria El-Kurbu saw her first action of the year on the varsity team and looked very poised going up against some very good competition. And kudos go out to Gage Long and Quenton LaRoe who gave up their Saturday to come watch a varsity tournament and cheer the Varsity team on. They showed team spirit and dedication to the team.

One week ago the Quiz Bowl team finished the Mid-Missouri conference season undefeated at 8-0. This was the third time in the last five years that we have gone through the conference season undefeated. On Saturday, South Callaway hosted the 2nd annual Mid-Missouri Conference Tournament. Hallsville beat Harrisburg in the opening round but lost to South Callaway in the 2nd round. In the 3rd round, we rebounded from our first loss to a conference opponent this year by crushing North Callaway 400-135. During this game, Sarah Hamel played her first quarter of varsity action for the year and promptly contributed to the team score. She performed so well, that she remained with the other starters to play in the championship round. After finishing the morning rounds at 2-1 we played South Callaway (3-0) for the tournament championship. The team played one of its best games of the season and beat South Callaway 395-230 to take first place in the tournament. Next Saturday we travel to Marshall High School for a tournament as we prepare for districts on April 12th.

Scott Allen